MANILA - Registrations of names for online businesses skyrocketed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Trade and Industry said on Monday.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said more Filipinos have been setting up businesses online as e-commerce exploded in growth last year.

“Our records will show that more and more people are getting into the online business,” Lopez said during a forum by economic managers in preparation for President Rodrigo Duterte’s last State of the Nation Address in July.

The Trade chief said that based on the DTI’s business name registration system, there were 86,726 business names registered for online businesses from April to December last year.

This was in contrast to just 1,848 business names registered for online businesses as of March 2020 before the pandemic, the DTI chief said.

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Lopez added that online business name registration also grew 381 percent in the first quarter of this year.

The DTI chief meanwhile also said the government’s efforts to digitalize its processes have helped make doing business easier in the Philippines, even as the country struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lopez noted that government agencies like the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Customs, and the Securities and Exchange Commission all made leaps in digitalizing their processes last year as the pandemic restricted face-to-face interactions.

He also said the establishment of the government’s Central Business Portal shortened the processing time for SEC and BIR registration “to at most 3-4 days” from over 10 days previously.

This has also made it easier for businesses to report employees to the Social Security System, PAGIBIG, and PHILHEALTH.

“Government agencies are making their services more efficient and making them available online,” Lopez said.

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