Quezon City among PCCI’s most business-friendly cities

MANILA, Philippines — For the second consecutive year, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) has named Quezon City as among the most business-friendly local government units (LGU) in the country.

Mayor Joy Belmonte received the award for the “Most Business-Friendly LGU” in the Level 1A category, or among the highly urbanized cities in the National Capital Region (NCR), during the 50th Philippine Business Conference and Expo held at the Marriott Hotel last Tuesday.

Belmonte earlier expressed gratitude to the PCCI for the recognition during her sixth State of the City Address (SOCA) last Monday.

“The goal is really to beat the record of my dad, which is to become a hall of famer,” she said, referring to former speaker and Quezon City mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

The PCCI gives the hall of fame award to LGUs that win it for three consecutive years.

The chamber confers the “Most Business-Friendly Award” to LGUs that “have demonstrated outstanding efforts in instituting good governance reforms to promote trade and investments, transparency, accountability and efficiency in delivering business services to generate inclusive and sustainable growth and fast-track local economic development in their localities.”

The criteria include fast-tracking sustainable local economic development, ease of doing business initiatives, investment promotion initiatives and enhancing sectoral competitiveness.

Shortlisted with Quezon City in the City Level 1A category were Marikina, Navotas, Pasig and Taguig.

In her recent SOCA, Belmonte recognized the efforts of various local offices to improve services and processes for businesses.

She highlighted digitization efforts such as the QC E-Services, QC Biz Easy and the Business One-Stop Shop online appointment system of the city’s Business Permits and Licensing Department.

“Here in QC, we have a single process to register a business name, apply for business permit and secure a barangay clearance… Everything is streamlined, so those who are applying for these permits no longer have to go to different offices,” she said.

“Under QC Biz Easy, those who apply for new business permits can receive their e-invoice in just one hour. You can finish your renewal is just 10 seconds. We will also deliver for free the hard copies of the permits and the receipts,” she added.

As of the third quarter of the year, the city had registered over 9,400 new businesses, matching the total number of new businesses in the city last year, according to Belmonte.

The mayor said several initiatives have been rolled out by the city government to encourage more businesses to relocate to the city, including additional tax incentives for medium and large enterprises.

Aside from the “Most Business-Friendly LGU” recognition from the PCCI, Quezon City also received for the fourth consecutive year the Overall Most Competitive Local Government Unit under the Highly Urbanized category from the Department of Trade and Industry.