Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez (File photo)
MANILA – Business registrations and renewals reached 1.9 million as of Tuesday, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez said.
He said the number has increased from 900,000 business registrations and renewals in 2015.
“While there are business(es) that closed down, the number of new businesses that registered and those that renewed their businesses actually increased,” Lopez said in a television interview Tuesday evening.
The trade chief said as long as there will be no extreme lockdowns that will happen, many sectors will remain open.
He added this would help the country to further reduce the unemployment rate close to the pre-pandemic level of 5 percent.
Unemployment rate in May 2021 settled at 7.7 percent, lower than the 8.7 percent in its previous month, and lower than the 17.7 percent joblessness rate at the height of the pandemic last year.
“As long as we are able to reopen, we see (a) faster reaction to employment. In other words, more people are going back to work, more sectors, more businesses are opening up again,” Lopez said.
He said the directive of President Rodrigo Duterte to pass economic reform bills such as amendments to the Foreign Investments Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Act, and the Public Service Act is “very timely” as the government is “trying to look for ways and means to achieve economic recovery”.
Lopez said these key legislations will help to attract foreign investments in the country that would create more jobs for Filipinos. (PNA)
