I love the way Business Registration is becoming easier by the year. While it might not be still a smooth-sailing experience, the seas are getting calmer. If there’s anything I could possibly suggest, it’s to make both DTI and SEC start accepting online payments via Credit Card Transactions, or partner them up with every Online Banking Service available to the public.
DTI, for example, will either have you pay personally at one of their offices or Negosyo centers, or you’ll have to pay via Bancnet, or GCash. While Bancnet is already somewhat there, I don’t understand why it should be Bancnet exclusively. Seems more like a logical option to go for the major card brands. And yes, GCash is currently on its road to evolve and be more publicly used, but to even start funding your GCash wallet is a pain considering they removed the option to fund it directly from your postpaid or prepaid load.
The same thing goes for SEC. Basically you need to go the SEC offices to process it there, despite having had the chance to already submit or process the documents necessary online as one of its recent upgrades. On top of that, the website is slow AF. Plus c’mon. Both DTI and SEC should at least secure proper SSL certificates. Majority of the public won’t probably take note of it, but with online privacy and security being more of an issue as days pass by, this should be mandatory.
Just today, I was struggling to register a partnership via SEC, with the website crashing continuously. For some reason, the developer behind the SEC forms online thinks it must be dynamic and cool to have every drop down linked to each other. By this I mean the Province drop down options won’t be visible until you choose you Region drop down choice. But all of this requires a good server response! Given that the website was lagging so bad, it took a couple of hours just to fill out the multipage forms, not to mention wait for every dropdown to load for every option linked to it. Make it a one-pager!
Business registration should be a walk in the park. According to the World Bank, from 2003, we’ve cut the days it takes from 49 to 28 now in 2017, which is awesome! But I think we can do better and cut it to less fewer days standing alongside UK with 5, Singapore with 3, and New Zealand with 1.
Especially given the traffic on our roads nowadays, I think it’s only fair to make the process as remote as possible. Sure, the satellite offices can still tend to people who feel the need to personally process their papers and ask for assistance. But what if the government can initiate and encourage a faster transaction for those willing to take the next step. This all equates to faster mobilization and payments!
Our countrymen deserve the chance to start fresh and be their own bosses. Many Filipinos have proven themselves to be on top of the game, managing businesses of foreign people, even standing out as a nationality known to provide great labor force abroad. I believe, given the chance, we can stand to be one of the most entrepreneurial nations and citizens of this world.
For DTI Sole Proprietorship Registrations, go to business.gov.ph
For SEC Partnerships and Incorporations, go to iregister.sec.gov.ph