NEGOSYO CENTER. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Provincial Director Zorina Aldana (left); Philippine Information Agency (PIA)-Bulacan Information Center manager Vins Concepcion (3rd from left); provincial media coordinator Shane Velasco (4th from left); and Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) head Myrna Lopez (2nd from right); lead the inauguration of the Negosyo Center in Santa Maria, Bulacan on Tuesday, July 9, 2019. The business center is the 15th opened by the DTI in the province of Bulacan. (Photo courtesy of DTI-Bulacan)
SANTA MARIA, Bulacan—The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) opened the 15th Negosyo Center in this province early this week to bring government services closer to the people.
The business center is located at the Business Permit and Licensing Office (BPLO) on the first floor of the Government Building here.
BPLO head Myrna Lopez said that with the opening of the Negosyo Center in this town, business-related services will be faster and easier.
Under Republic Act No. 10644 (Go Negosyo Act), micro, small and medium enterprises are given ease in doing business when a Negosyo Center is just within their reach.
The center is a one-stop-shop, where business owners can process their business registration and seek business advisory services, and provides business information, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation of business-process improvement.
Once a Negosyo Center is in place in a certain community, a local business person may no longer need to line up or go to the nearest DTI office to have his/her business registered and wait for days to process the registration process.
Meanwhile, DTI Provincial Director Zorina Aldana congratulated the BPLO of Santa Maria, which remains to be the Most Business-Friendly Municipality of Bulacan since 2005.
Various awards have been achieved by Santa Maria town due to the success of its streamlining procedure and information technology innovation in improving government services.
"As a result, Santa Maria's town is not missing out on the list of Most Competitive Municipalities throughout the Philippines, and in the province of Bulacan," Aldana added.
In 2015, Santa Maria ranked the second Most Competitive Municipality in the Philippines based on the Municipal Competitiveness Index released by the National Competitiveness Commission.
Among the criteria in the Municipal Competitiveness Index is the quality of service provided by a municipal government specifically the reforms in transaction systems such as the rapid provisioning of business permits. (PNA)
