The Philippines hopes to land in the range of 47th to 50th in ranking in ease of doing business globally as it continues to institute reforms that would cut processing of government transactions to as fast as an hour, according to Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez.
Since climbing 19 notches to 95th spot on the 2020 Ease of Doing (EODB) Survey, the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) targets the 47th spot for the Philippines on the 2021 cycle of the Doing Business (DB) survey administered by the World Bank-International Finance Corp.
Government is setting a more aggressive target -— compared to 74th or in the top 40-percentile of the rankings set earlier — as it continues to streamline processes.
Lopez told the Ease of Doing Business forum in Manila yesterday government aims to remove all unnecessary steps, forms and information fields as it shifts to e-governance.
Lopez said government is confident with a simplified process and no-contact policy, there will be little room for corruption.
He said with automation, the government will reduce processing time from an average of 33 days to an hour, or a maximum of one day. The number of steps will also be cut from the current 13.
Jeremiah Belgica, director-general of the Anti-Red Tape Authority , in the same forum said the body targets to reduce the number of steps and requirements needed for government services by 52 percent in 52 weeks in 2020.
“All efforts will be directed towards ensuring inter-operability of all agencies,” Belgica said.
To further improve its current standing, ARTA is focusing on reforms on the starting a business indicator of the EODB through the development of National Business One Stop Shop and Program NEHEMIA (National Effort on the Harmonization of Efficient Measures of Interrelated Agencies), both of which focus on reducing regulatory burden to the people by improving the agencies’ systems and processes.
