Archive for May 30th, 2008
‘Too much autonomy’ makes RP cities less business friendly
By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak
May 27, 2008–Major cities in the Philippines generally take longer to issue business-related permits and licenses compared to most cities in the world, thus constraining their growth and competitiveness, a recent study shows.
Twenty-one cities in the country are able to authorize numerous and varying procedures in starting businesses in their jurisdictions because, according to a private sector representative, they were given “too much autonomy” under the Local Government Code of 1991.
A representative to the government-created National Competitiveness Council suggested then that some of the taxation powers of local government units (LGUs) be reverted to the national government.
In a study conducted by the International Finance Corp. (IFC) and the World Bank on the ease of doing business in cities worldwide, the Philippines ranked 133rd out of 178 countries.
‘Redundant, outdated’
Dealing with a Philippine city to start a business takes an average of 18 procedures and 35 days and costs 27 percent of the income per capita, according to the study. The number of procedures is only two less than the figure for Equatorial Guinea, the country with most procedures to start a business.
“Cities should cut down on unnecessary, redundant, and outdated procedures, and they should take a look at all the procedures that their customers have to go through,” said Vincent Lazatin, executive director of the Transparency and Accountability Network, during the presentation Monday of the Doing Business in the Philippines 2008 study at Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City. (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak)
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LGUs urged to cut red tape
Photo Credit: www.en.wikipilipinas.org
