On Friday November 29, 2013, Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic & Telecommunication approved a mandate allowing the Department Head of Economic Licenses to approve and sign off on the following requests:
– Address changes of Directors
– Cancellations of business, director, branch, operational and vending licenses
– Vending licenses for a maximum period of 21 days (typically given for special events, such as Carnival)
– One time event licenses (such as Buffet, Bingo & Raffle licenses)
– Authentic copies of existing licenses
This mandate is part of the Ministry’s 2013-2014 goal of streamlining the entire licensing process to reduce processing time and make the application process more client and investor friendly.
In addition to the afore-mentioned mandate, the following developments will aid in the streamlining process.
Coming January 2014, the intention is to have all licenses and requests processed via a simple web interface. This online application system will be launched in two phases.
The 1st phase is an internal launch, which would allow for quick inter-departmental decision making with a few simple clicks.
The department of Economic Licenses currently waits weeks or months in some cases for inter-departmental advice on particular licenses, which adds to the processing time. With this system, advice can be given with a mere click of a button; There would be no more need for heavy administrative work and as a result, we expect the entire processing time to be significantly reduced.
The 2nd phase is the public launch, where users would be able to apply for their licenses online. Once we have worked out any kinks found during the internal launch, we will be able to announce a date for the public launch. Nonetheless, we expect to launch within the first quarter of 2014.
The department began translating all documentation (license templates and letters) in English and will begin using these once the project is fully completed. As it stands now, the project is 90% complete and should be ready to launch in the first quarter of 2014 as well.