The implementation of the green lane in Northern Samar is expected to attract more investments to the poverty-stricken province as it streamlines the business application processes.

Northern Samar provincial economic development and investment promotions office head Jhon Allen Berbon said the initiative, officially dubbed the Northern Samar One-Stop-Action Center for Strategic Investment, is a new process that seeks to streamline the process of obtaining business permits and licenses in Northern Samar.

“With these streamlined processes, Northern Samar aims to reduce bureaucratic hurdles and commit further to efficiency, setting the province to become a beacon of investment opportunities in the region,” Berbon said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Berbon said they have also been capacitating business permit and licensing officers and the local economic development and investment promotion officers in the province to take an active role in driving economic growth and facilitating investment in Northern Samar.

The Board of Investments earlier lauded Northern Samar for establishing a one-stop shop in the province that will result in the creation of an efficient and investor-friendly process for obtaining business permits and licenses at the town and village levels by having one point of transaction through the provincial capitol.

Recently, the province has been attracting major investments, particularly in the areas of renewable energy and digital infrastructure.

The green lanes for strategic investments were established through Executive Order No. 18, which was approved by the Office of the President in February last year.

Green lanes aim to hasten, simplify, and automate the permit and license application processes for strategic investments in the Philippines. (PNA)