Improving Business Climate

Results achieved as of the end of the project (March 2014) include: (1) $35.2 million in aggregate private sector savings as a result of reduction in administrative bureaucracy (i.e. cost and time to comply with business regulations) in seven Local Government Units (LGUs) since 2011; (2) over 7000 new businesses are estimated to have benefitted from the new simplified registration procedures in three cities that started implementing the reform on business entry regulation beginning in 2012; (3) time to register a business was reduced from an average of 22 days to 1 day in the 7 assisted LGUs; (4) Increased potential for regulatory simplification to be taken to scale across the country; (5) the City of Mandaluyong adopted a Green Building Ordinance and its Implementing Rules and Regulations. If implemented efficiency of buildings in the use of resources such as energy water and materials will increase thus improving environmental quality and enhance the Philippines’ resilience to climate change as well as lowering operational costs of businesses working in these buildings. An estimated 7M USD will be saved by businesses by 2020; and (6) Domestic ship licensing process was streamlined and the barriers to market entry of new firms were reduced. These reforms significantly shortened the average processing time for licensing vessels (from an average of 40 days to 20 days) and an estimated cost savings of up to US$ 300 000 for each large vessel. The regulatory simplification work has been transformed into and a formal program of the national government (RS4LG) with an adopted business rollout plan seeking to implement regulatory simplification in another 100 cities over the next two years.