Business registrations increase 31% to 1.2M

New business name registrations rose 31 percent in the first half to a record of 1.2 million from 916,163 registered enterprises in the same period in 2020, the Department of Trade and Industry said Thursday.

“Despite the pandemic, we’re seeing an increase in business registrations. In fact, from January to June 2021, there was about 31-percent growth in business registrations, especially online businesses,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.

This followed the 43.6-percent rise in business name registrations in 2020 to 916,163 from 637,580 in 2019.

Lopez said while about 10 percent of small businesses closed in the second wave of strict quarantine measures, “some must have also opened another business and registered the same at the DTI.”“Business owners especially micro businesses cannot afford to have no means to get by. They will again put up another business, maybe in logistics, as soon as they shut down a prior business. They need to put food on the table for their families,” he said.