The number of companies initiating the registration process on the government’s newly-launched e-Business Registration Platform has increased to 7,293, nearly seven months since the system went online.
Six ministries and state-run institutions have been integrated into a business registration system on the platform, also known as the Single Portal, which was launched on June 15 by government representatives.
The six ministries and state institutions listed in the system are the ministries of Interior; Economy and Finance; Commerce; and Labour and Vocational Training, as well as the General Department of Taxation and the Council for the Development of Cambodia.
Another six are planned to be incorporated.
As of January 4, 2,970 companies had successfully registered on the Single Portal, its data show. That figure was just 287 on July 29 and 1,892 on October 28.
As of the same day, 651 companies were under final review, while 3,463 others have cleared a preliminary review and are “registered for reservation”, awaiting the final review. Another 209 are under preliminary review.
Cambodia Chamber of Commerce (CCC) vice-president Lim Heng said that since its inception, the Single Portal has been applauded over its efficiency and as a positive step in the government’s mission to ease the business climate for the private sector.
He said: “All members of the CCC and foreign investors are very welcome to join the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s new initiative that is the online business registration platform, which can reduce costs, time and bureaucracy, and at the same time, affords us the ultimate convenience of registering anywhere we wish.
“I have kept tabs on government reforms in the economic sector, which have greased the wheels for the private sector. The reforms bode well into building trust in the private sector and driving away hesitation to expand businesses and inject capital into Cambodia.”
Cambodia Investment Management group CEO Anthony Galliano, a prominent foreign businessman in the Kingdom, also pointed out that the single portal online business registration system is essentially a quantum leap for the country.
He described the company registration process of old as a bureaucratic nightmare that took months and involved multiple ministries repeating information and sending business owners from one government institution to another.
He expressed his yearning for a common company registration gateway akin to those in Singapore and Hong Kong, where he said “ministerial registration is streamlines and take only days.
“I am amazed at the transformation in company registration in the Kingdom which now takes only days, with each ministry digesting common paperwork simultaneously with minimum human interaction.
“We have registered a company in a week, whereas in the past, the three ministries took at least three months, or much more.
“This will be a welcome improvement and advancement for foreign direct investment, and we can now compete as the best in the region [in terms of] ease of doing business.
“[We] tout it as a major achievement [that Cambodia] can be proud of,” Galliano said.
Finance ministry spokesman Meas Soksensan previously said the Single Portal would require companies to complete a one-time business registration form, taking a maximum of eight days.
He noted that all data submitted by the companies under the platform will be automatically forwarded to all ministries and state-run institutions incorporated into the system.
The Single Portal can be accessed at registrationservices.gov.kh.
