FIVE LGUs IN ALBAY IMPLEMENT STREAMLINED BUSINESS PERMITS & LICENSING SYSTEM

In accordance with the service standards which the national government is setting consistent with Republic Act No. 9485, otherwise known as the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007 (ARTA), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) issued Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 01, series of 2010 stating therein the Guidelines in Implementing the Standards in Processing Business Permits and Licenses in all cities and municipalities in the country. Under the JMC, all cities and municipalities are enjoined to follow the following standards in processing business permits and licenses:

. UNIFIED FORM - all cities and municipalities shall use a single unified form in processing new applications for business permits and business renewals. The unified form consolidates all the information about a business registrant needed by various local and national agencies. The adoption of the unified form is anticipated to contribute to reduction of steps an time in applying for business permits.

. STANDARD STEPS - All cities and municipalities shall ensure that applicants for business registration shall follow five(5) steps in applying for new business permits or for business renewals:

1. Securing an application form from the city or municipality
2. Filing or submission of the accomplished application form with attached documentary requirements
3. One-time assessment of taxes, fees and charges
4. One-time payment of taxes, fees and charges
5. Securing the Mayor's Permit upon submission of Official REceipt as proof of payment of taxes, fees and charges imposed by the LGU

. STANDARD PROCESSING TIME - Consistent with ARTA, all cities and municipalities are enjoined to comply with the prescribed time for processing of business registrations:

1. Processing of new business permits, which is classified as a complex transaction following the ARTA classification, shall not take more than 10 days for the release of the permit. However, the LGUs are enjoined to strive for 5 days or less which is the average processing days in LGUs with streamlined BPLS

2. Processing of business renewals, which is classified as a simple transaction, shall not take more than 5 days for the release of the permit. However, LGUs are enjoined to strive for one day or less processing, which is the average processing time in LGUs with streamlined BPLS

. SIGNATORIES - all cities and municipalities shall follow the prescribed number of signatories required in processing new business applications and business renewals to five days following the ARTA. However, LGUs are enjoined to require only two (2) signatories, namely, the Mayor and the Treasurer or BPLO. To avoid delay in the release of permits, alternate signatories (e.g. Municipal or City Administrator of the BPLO) may be properly deputized by the Mayor.

In the province of Albay, five (5) Local Government Units, namely: Tabaco City, Legazpi City, Municipalities of Daraga and Guinobatan and Ligao City have been selected to pilot the implementation of the streamlined business permits and licensing system adopting all the above stated guidelines and procedures starting January, 2011. All said LGUs have set-up their respective Business One-Stop Shops which will run during the entire first quarter of 2011.

Initial assessment of the new BPLS and BOSS reveals that applications for business registration have surge dramatically. All LGUs reported significant reduction in processing time from the standard of one day for business renewals, they release mayor's permit in a matter of 30 minutes to 1 hour.

To verify whether these registration reforms have been implemented as required and that the clients have really experienced the benefits of the new system, the Department of Trade and Industry-Albay Provincial Office devised a Client Satisfaction Feedback (CSF) form and distributed it to the participating LGUs for distribution also to the registrants. Evaluation will be done in March, 2011.

After the five pilot LGUs for this year, the Albay BPLS Streamlining Team will start the training for the Phase 2 which will be participated-in by another five (5) LGUs who will implement the new BPLS and BOSS in 2012. The remaining 8 municipalities are expected to fully implement the system in 2013.

CALLING START-UP ENTREPRENEURS

ANNOUNCEMENT: ALL INTERESTED START-UP ENTREPRENEURS AND WOULD-BE ONES who wish to enhance their entrepreneurship knowledge and skills, watch out for the start the Livelihood & Entrepreneurship Advocacy Program (LEAP) of the Department of Trade and Industry-Albay Provincial Office. The schedule of entrepreneurship and skills training, both on-site (office) and off-site (LGUs)will be every second and last thursday of the month, respectively starting February, 2011. For reservation and further inquiries, kindly call DTI @ tel. no. 052 4350337, 480-6834 or 820-6830.

THOLONS, Intl. CONDUCTS SKILLS ASSESSMENT FOR LEGAZPI'S LOCAL MANPOWER

In year 2010, the city of Legazpi has been ranked 12th among the Next Wave Cities by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and the Business Processing Association of the Phl (BPAP) as a favorable destination and location for ICT businesses. There were four criteria set for the ranking following the industry scorecard and these include: Infrastructure, Talent, Cost of Doing Business and the Business Environment. Among the four components, Legazpi scored low under Talent and this challenged the city government to look into the reasons behind especially so that it aims to reach the Top 10 category in year 2011.

Given the above challenge, the City Government of Legazpi, in partnership with the Albay Information and Communications Technology Association, Inc. (AICTA) and the Legazpi City ICT Council, has tapped the services of an international consulting firm, THOLONS, Inc. to do the IT-BPO Skills Assessment & evaluation of the city's human resource potentials and capabilities in response to the big challenge raised by industry as regards to the city's readiness and capability in hosting potential ICT-enabled investors and locators.

The skills assessment will be conducted on February 1-4, 2011 and will be participated-in by 500 graduating students from the following participating schools:

1. Bicol University
2. Divine Word College of Legazpi
3. Bicol College
4. Ago Medical & Educational Center-Bicol Christian College of Medicine
5. SL Technological College Foundation
6. STI College-Legazpi
7. AMA Computer College-Legazpi Campus
8. De Vera Institute of Technology
9. Mariners' Polytechnic Colleges Foundation
10. Computer Arts & Technological College
11. Tanchuling College
12. Aquinas University of Legazpi

Results of the said assessment will serve as an important input not only to the City Government in its effort to develop programs and projects to prepare its local talents but most importantly to the participating schools in trying to adjust or match their respective curricular offerings to the requirements of the industry. It is further hoped that the study (assessment) will give a true picture of the status of the existing readiness and capabilities of the local talents so that investors and locators will come in and provide employment and income to the local manpower pool.