A restaurant in the capital of Costa Rica obtained its business license in 10 days, using the “Crear Empresa”, (Create an Enterprise) website which has recently been launched.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
A statement from the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) reads:
First patent delivered online through ‘Crear Empresa’
• The process was carried out in the jurisdiction of the Municipality of San José
• The patenting process took only 10 working days
San Jose, November 21, 2012. The restaurant "Brasero Grill", located in Zapote, will go down in history as the first company to have its business license processed and obtained online through the electronic platform Crear Empresa.
The patent process was conducted electronically with the Municipality of San Jose by Mr. Diego Francisco Guzman Villalobos, who also, using Crear Empresa, obtained the land use certificate, the health and sanitation operating permit from the Ministry of Health and environmental viability report from Setena.
Having a digital signature and have a website where these procedures were performed simultaneously, allowed Mr. Guzman Villalobos to make all arrangements from his office and get the business license within ten working days.
"For me the experience of Crear Empresa was amazing. Just the fact that there are no intermediaries or 'hawks' to interfere in the process is a big advantage. Here there can be no corruption, because everything is done online. Previously, this was a disincentive for any entrepreneur thinking of the ordeal of obtaining a patent. Instead I got it working in ten days, it is extraordinary", said Mr. Guzman.
In El Salvador a system has been presented which new companies can use to carry out online registration procedures.
The new platform was created by the Regulatory Improvement Agency, and aims to simplify and accelerate the process of registering new companies in the country.
Importers are complaining that the "Regístrelo" (RegisterIt) digital system is malfunctioning, and that it is not possible to carry out the steps manually, generating delays of up to five months in these processes.
Although the official announcement of the implementation of the new platform emphasized that one of the benefits was the reduction of timeframes, the import sector is criticizing delays of up to five months in processing health records granted by the Ministry of Health. Added to this is the fact that the system was made obligatory, there was not a period for improvements and now there are no other official instruments to use to register products.
The Costa Rican government has announced successes in de-bureaucratizing the country, but employers say that in reality plans to make it happened haven’t actually been put into action.
The business sector does acknowledge that some progress has been made, but is asking for better coordination between the different entities involved in issuing permits.
From 2012 the government will be offering a Digital Home Business System, which will reduce the time it takes to start a business to 20 days.
Currently it takes up to 60 days to complete the various formalities required for starting a business, which places the country among the slowest in the region, according to a global Doing Business report.
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