BACOLOD CITY – Business registration here last year has reached a record-breaking 25,627, surpassing the record high of 2018, the Permits and Licensing Division said.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said it was a “pleasant surprise” that the 2019 record posted a growth of 2,440 additional businesses registered or a 10.52 percent increase compared to the previous year.
“Progress begets progress. I believe that indeed, the thing speaks for itself,” Leonardia said, a press release from the information office quoted him as saying.
“This also means that things are different now in Bacolod. For one, all the big players are here,” the mayor added, enumerating the big property developers that have mushroomed in the city.
In 2016, when the Leonardia administration took over, business registration reached 19,021. The following year, in 2017, it increased to 22,004. It went up to 23,187 in 2018, and 25,627 in 2019.
Compared to the 2015 figure under the previous administration, the 2019 figure recorded an increase of 6,810 businesses registered.
Leonardia said, “As we continue to innovate and find ways and means to improve the ease of doing business, we will not only please and retain existing ones but even attract new investments. This is the core of our intensified campaign to establish Bacolod as one of the ‘most business-friendly cities in the country.’”*/CITY PIO
