Gov’t wants unique identifiers for businesses
The government is planning to assign businesses a single and unique identifier in order to make transactions easier for them.
The Philippine Business Number is one of the solutions that the government is eyeing in order to improve business registration in the country, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
In a statement, the DTI said this was part of “Project One,” which would mark the first
initiative of the newly created Anti-Red Tape Authority
(Arta). The DTI’s competitiveness bureau acts as temporary secretariat for the body.
The DTI said it would soon come up with an implementation framework for the Philippine Business Number.
“With the passage of the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Delivery Services Act, DTI’s efforts at pursuing reforms will be further strengthened,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.
President Duterte recently signed the Ease of Doing Business Act, which created the Arta, tasking it to “ensure the attainment of the objectives” of its enabling law.
“The law mandates all government agencies including LGUs (local government units) to automate business registration procedures, and we are glad that it will be the first time that our government will use the ‘design sprint,’ as innovation,” Lopez added.
Lopez was referring to an approach developed by Google Ventures (GV). The design sprint is a five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers, according to GV’s official website.
The DTI will have a design sprint in September to figure out how to do the implementation framework for the Philippine Business Number.
The DTI will also be using the same framework next month for the creation of a Wikipedia-type platform catering to LGUs. This will be in cooperation with the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
Lastly, the DTI said it would also hold a design sprint in October to develop a prototype for an end-to-end registration application allowing business owners to complete their business registration on one website or application. —ROY STEPHEN C. CANIVEL
