A SEAMLESS government service and simplified way of starting a business across Central and Eastern Visayas regions were promised to the public during the opening of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (Arta) office in Cebu City on Friday, May 12.
Secretary Ernesto V. Perez, the director general of Arta, believed that the initiative will encourage more businesses to open, thus creating more jobs and boosting the local economy.
"When people know that it is easier to deal business, the economy will grow even better," Perez told SunStar Cebu on Friday.
The newly opened Arta Eastern Visayas Field Office is located at the National Food Authority compound in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City.
The office's jurisdiction will cover both regions seven and eight.
Perez said that they seek to extend the scope of the government's streamlining and digitization program to ensure speedier response in government transactions.
Digitalization
In his speech, he stated that the new field office will monitor how well the Central and Eastern Visayas government entities are adhering to the regulations for carrying out both business and non-business activities by putting the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) law into practice.
One of the key efforts of the law that each local government unit (LGUs) should carry out is the Electronic Business One-Stop Shop (eBOSS), which is supposed to digitalize business permitting and licensing systems, allowing LGUs to issue tax bills, order of payments, permits, licenses and clearances, and accept applications and payments online.
"Once the LGUs are able to set up and operationalize, an end-to-end process from the filing of application, submission of requirements, the processing, the payment, and printing of mayor's permit should be done online," said the director general.
Hours before the inauguration of the new field office, Arta officials awarded the City of Lapu-Lapu a certificate of commendation for being the first local government unit (LGU) in the Visayas and Mindanao to operate the eBOSS.
Perez encouraged the rest of the LGUs in the region, especially the independent cities of Cebu, to replicate Lapu-Lapu City.
Business-friendly
He said that aspiring entrepreneurs and existing business owners now do not need to go to the city or municipal building when getting a business permit.
According to Perez, businessmen are frequently turned off by the pointless procedures and lengthy waiting periods associated with dealing with the government, but when "it is easier for them dealing with the local government by securing business permit from the comfort of their homes, they will voluntarily register their business."
Kalvin Laurence Parpan, the Philtower Consortium, Inc.'s director of external affairs, believed that reducing bureaucratic procedures would greatly benefit the business sector.
"Because of the efficiency that Arta has been extending not just to tower companies but to the whole telecommunications industry. The ease of doing business in this sector has been really relevant," he said, adding that dealing business with the government has never been easier.
Parpan said that because of this, last year, they have directed $500 million in investments for the country, portions of which will be poured into the Visayas region.
Philtower is a cell tower company that creates infrastructures in the country's smart cities.
Building in-building systems, small cells, and shared common infrastructure like towers, poles, and rooftops allows clients to deliver quick connectivity to the majority of people. (KJF)