The Nerbac was opened at the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) regional office with Trade Undersecretary Merly Cruz as the guest of honor.
DTI Regional Director Nazrullah Manzur said Nerbac will provide business information to prospective investors and mechanisms covering linkages with other government agencies in order to facilitate registration of businesses.
Nerbac's objectives are: to act as a single window for investment facilitation in terms of express licensing, registration, and incentives facilitation, and to establish an information system that would provide reliable and accurate data to investors and other clients of the center.
The immediate goals of Nerbac are to reduce the processing of business startups from the average of one month at present to one week, establish a centralized payment and collection of fees, and draft a single or unified business application form.
Nerbac's operation is a partnership between DTI and agencies involved in business registration, licensing, and accreditation such as the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), Pag-IBIG Fund, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Social Security System (SSS), Board of Investment (BOI), Ecozone, and the local government units, according to Manzur.
The Regional Development Council (RDC) 9 passed Resolution 037-06 expressing full support to the establishment of Nerbac in Zamboanga City.
Manzur will serve as the Nerbac chairman of the Board of Advisers while his members will come from the offices of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Department of Finance (DOF), Zamboanga City Chamber president, and the presidents of the industry association. (Bong Garcia)
