By Christine Fabro
The Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) committed to assisting Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), a hard-hit sector by the COVID-19 pandemic.
ARTA Director-General Secretary Jeremiah Belgica said in a statement on Monday (June 28) that ARTA will streamline the application process of MSMEs by requesting for the conduct of a Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA).
He said the streamlining will ease the burden of MSMEs who are struggling to maintain their businesses amid the pandemic, leading to the country’s eventual economic recovery.
According to Belgica, MSMEs are job creators and the backbone of the country’s economy as they contribute 35.7% to the Philippine’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
These enterprises also employ 62.5% of the country’s labor force and constitute 99.5% of all business establishments in the country.
“What we are seeking to impart is the importance of prioritizing what we can control and pursuing it with zeal. In our perspective, processes and regulations play a big role in supporting our country’s economy,” Belgica said in a Senate Hearing on the Effects of COVID-19 on Philippines Trade, Commerce, and Entrepreneurship on Monday.
“If the processes do not fit the current situation, they will almost certainly fail. If we continue to operate in the old and traditional manner, we will hardly recover from this global crisis,” he added.
Some of the ARTA’s initiatives include the establishment of a digital platform for registering local businesses called Central Business Portal, which reduced the length of business registration from 33 days to only three days.
It also mandated local government units to set up their electronic Business One-Stop Shops (eBOSS) that cut “people-to-people contact, standardize documentary requirements, steps, and processing time, and weed out redundant processes”.
As of May 31, at least 580 LGUs have been reported to be using eBOSS platforms. – rir
