Trade Undersecretary Kris Ablan. Photo from DTI website
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry and the Securities and Exchange Commission signed a memorandum of agreement to integrate business registration databases, streamlining the transition of sole proprietorships into corporations.
The “Swift Corporate and Other Records Exchange (SCOPE) Protocol” was signed at the SEC office in Makati on Wednesday.
Trade Undersecretary Kris Ablan told the Inquirer that the collaboration could double the speed of incorporation by reducing background checks between the two government agencies.
“We will give the (application programming interface) to the SEC by April. So, it should be okay by the end of April,” Ablan said.
Since the start of the year through March 18, business name registrations had reached 398,243, according to the DTI registration system. In comparison, first-quarter filings in 2024 totaled 439,813.
Business categories
Of filings this year so far, 58 percent or 231,158 were engaged in wholesale and retail trade.
Meanwhile, 13.3 percent, or 52,977, were in the accommodation and food sector.
The other top business categories were: real estate, with 23,930,;manufacturing, with 18,796; other service activities, with 16,088; administrative and support, with 13,446; and transportation and storage, with 11,981.
Region IV-A still had the highest number of registrations at 70,527, which accounted for 17.71 percent of the total.
It was followed by: Region III, with 48,360; the National Capital Region, with 42,290; Region VI, with 27,163 and Region I, with 25,997.
Completing the top 10 list were: Region VII, with 24,754; Region II, with 18,347; Region XI, with 18,446; Region X, with 17,070, and Region XIII, with 14,977.