Municipality of Lomas de Zamora, Province of Buenos Aires, latest to sign on for system that simplifies, clarifies government-business transactions
Geneva, 15 November 2010 -- UNCTAD´s increasingly popular "e-regulations" programme will be carried out in the Argentine municipality of Lomas de Zamora based on an agreement signed today.
UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Petko Draganov and Martin Insaurralde, Mayor of Lomas de Zamora, a suburb of Buenos Aires, signed the cooperation agreement.
"A responsible government approaches its problems and proposes solutions. The e-regulations system will be an enabler and a catalyst for public efficiency at the Municipality of Lomas de Zamora and will support our capacity to outreach to citizens and entrepreneurs," said Mr. Insaurralde.
The e-regulations system already operates in Colombia, Comoros, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mali, Morocco, Nicaragua, the Russian Federation (City of Moscow), Rwanda, and Viet Nam. It involves a thorough review -- generally by UNCTAD experts working in cooperation with consultants -- of the steps involved for such basic transactions between businesses and governments as registering firms, carrying out investment, and registering for and paying taxes. The frequent discovery is that these processes are more complex and confusing than realized. As a result, they are often made more simple and transparent.
The processes are then posted on government websites in step-by-step fashion, giving the names of the officials concerned, their contact information, the documents needed, and the costs involved.
E-regulations almost always result in greater efficiency in public service, improved governance, and cost reductions. They also generally lead to an increase in entrepreneurship, a reduction in business costs, and improvements in production and job creation in developing countries striving to increase the numbers of domestic small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Businesses in low-income countries face on average more than twice the regulatory burdens of their counterparts in high-income economies when starting up operations, transferring property, filing taxes, or resolving commercial disputes through the courts(1) . The negative effect is more significant for SMEs, whose average administrative costs are estimated at between six and thirty times those of larger businesses.(2)
The e-regulations system is part of UNCTAD´s Business Facilitation Programme.
The project is expected to begin in Lomas de Zamora in early February 2011.
