United Nations Public Service Awards Case Studies

World Bank has started to study the Doing Business report since 2004 which is aimed to measure the ease of doing business in 183 economies. The report tends to measure the costs to firms of business regulations in order to increase the confidence for entrepreneurs to start and expand their businesses in focused countries. Starting Business is one of the indicators that are measured in the Doing Business Report.

As of result under Starting Business indicator in previous year Thailand had;

1) 7 processes
1.1 Apply for permission to use company name
1.2 Deposit paid-in capital in a bank
1.3 Obtain a corporate seal
1.4 Get approval for memorandum of association and apply to register the company as a legal entity (final registration) at the Private Limited Companies Registrar.
1.5 Register with the Revenue Department for tax
1.6 Register for social security and Workmen’s Compensation Fund at the Social Security Office, Ministry of Labor
1.7 Submit company work regulations to the Office of Labor Protection and Welfare of the Ministry of Labor at the district where the head office of the company is located

2) 4 government agencies
2.1 The Department of Business Development
2.2 The Revenue Department
2.3 The Social Security Office
2.4 The Department of Labour Protection and Welfare

3) 32 days to complete the starting business process

4) Total cost of 6,400 Thai Baht

5) Various forms and documents required

The major problem was that entrepreneurs had to contact 4 different government agencies which make it complicate to complete the starting business process.

What is the initiative about? (the solution)
Thailand has released the e-Starting project since the beginning of 2010 with the effort to make it easier in business registration, faster in registration process, and cheaper in costs. The e-Starting project is to minimize all possible issues that would benefit entrepreneurs, private sectors, and governments including the contact point of government agencies, the processes, forms and documents required under the 4S concept; - Single Point - Single Form - Single Document - Single Number This project will allow entrepreneurs to visit only Department of Business Development as a Single Point for business registration by using only Single Form and Single set of document to complete the business registration. Entrepreneurs will also receive all 3 numbers that are needed in starting business without contacting 3 government agencies and start up the business immediately. The 3 numbers are as follow; 1) Business registration number 2) Taxpayer identification number 3) Employer account number In addition to this project, the data of business registration will be transferred to the Revenue Department and the Social Security Office for data record management. The benefits for entrepreneurs 1. Reducing the process of starting business from 7 steps to 5 steps. 2. Reducing the total process time from 32 days to 7 days 4 hours and 20 minutes. 3. Reducing the process time of contacting 3 government agencies from 4 days to 90 minutes. 4. Reducing the forms and documents from 3 sets to 1 set. 5. Economize the transportation process by contacting 1 agency (saving over 600 Thai Baht trip) 6. Immediate business starts up. The benefits for country 1. Easier and faster in starting-up business. 2. Beginning stage of e-Government by integration and adaptation as One Stop Services (OSS). 3. Beginning stage of collaboration between government agencies. 4. Reducing the working process of government services. 5. To be carried out continuously with further improvements in paper less (more than 500,000 paper per year, calculated from actual data of numbers in business registration forms and documents)

Who proposed the solution, who implemented it and who were the stakeholders?
Who proposed the solution: According to the cabinet resolution on November 3rd, 2009, the committee approved the government sectors to increase the services capability and create competitive advantage for Thailand in Ease of Doing Business. Therefore, within the Starting Business indicator, the Minister Level from 3 ministries - Ministry of Commerce - Ministry of Finance - Ministry of Labour had conferred with the issues that cause difficulties in starting up the business in Thailand and announced the e-Starting Business project to resolve these difficulties. The Department of Business Development from the Ministry of Commerce has been assigned for the responsibility to resolve the issues. Who implemented it: The policy has passed onto the General Director of 3 departments - The Department of Business Development - The Revenue Department - The Social Security Office to implement the e-Starting project by each department to set up the teams to perform 3 main specific tasks; process team, technology team, and law and regulation team. who were the stakeholders: Regarding to the structure of managing this project, there are steering committees from both government sectors and private sectors of more than 12 agencies to study, research, and perform closely for the highest possible outcome.

Describe how and when the initiative was implemented by answering these questions
a. What were the strategies used to implement the initiative? In no more than 500 words, provide a summary of the main objectives and strategies of the initiative, how they were established and by whom.
From the reason of complexity in starting business process, there were a certain amount of performance specific considerations that we took into account. In order to perform strategies towards achieving the implementation of e-Starting Business project, the adaptation of new public management has become a significant issue to improve Thailand’s starting business process. Therefore, we set up 3 analyzing processes which are goals and objectives, external environment, and internal environment in order to clarify all subject matters throughout the project toward the ends. The strategies that were used to implement are as follow: 1. Action Plan – to clarify the goal of the project and get a visual of the expected outcome including list of actions and timeline. 2. Teams’ responsibility – the issue in working with several teams from different organizations. 3. Internal examination – the capability of staffs to adapt themselves in new tasks of each department. In addition to create knowledge management and risk management for new organization. 4. External examination – to study the best practice from other projects and obtain information from outside sources to evaluate the project. 5. Monitoring the execution – review the plan regularly and keep track of the new progress. Adjust the new information that receive from the evaluation and use them to further adjust and optimize the plan.

b. What were the key development and implementation steps and the chronology? No more than 500 words
The e-Starting Business project is divided into 2 phases of achievement: Phase 1 (Single Point, Single Form, Single Document) 1. Register business and receive business registration number, taxpayer identification number, and employer account number at Department of Business Development (Single Point) 2. Trial period for DBD officers and publicize the information to entrepreneurs. 3. Start service in Bangkok on June 30th, 2010 and service throughout all provinces on October 1st, 2010. 4. Develop the registration form (Single Form) and the rules of registration. 5. Use Single Document to identify the entrepreneur. Phase 2 (Single Number) Improvement regulations and procedures of registration and launch the Single Number by combining all 3 numbers (Business registration number, Taxpayer identification number, and Employer account number) as one number.

c. What were the main obstacles encountered? How were they overcome? No more than 500 words
The problems in running the e-Starting Business project can be categorize into 3 main specific categories as follow; Process 1. The differentiation in structure and process and capability of staffs in each organization. 2. Capability of staffs in specific tasks and skill to adapt new system into knowledge management. 3. The confident in collaborate the government agencies. Law and regulations 1. Based on the history of Thai government system, each organization usually operates their own work that the law regulates. The e-Starting Business project will be the new challenges for Thai government system. 2. The changes in law and regulations may affect some tasks and the result of new organization structure. Therefore, the law and regulations process were needed to focus carefully throughout 3 departments that were involved. Technology 1. The differences of the system in each department including data entry system, data filing, and data recoding. 2. The process of converting 3 different numbers - Business registration number 13 digits - Taxpayer identification number 10 digits - Employer account number 16 digits into 1 as Single Number.

d. What resources were used for the initiative and what were its key benefits? In no more than 500 words, specify what were the financial, technical and human resources’ costs associated with this initiative. Describe how resources were mobilized
To lead this project to the accomplishment, there are variety of resources in changing the infrastructure, processes, and system of Starting Business. The resources of this project are separated into 2 major parts which are human and information resources that used to utilize in performing and implementing the e-Starting Business. Human resources 1. Under the 4s concept (Single Point, Single Form, Single Document, Single Number), it relies heavily on staffs and personal ability to adapt the other different types of tasks including technology and new knowledge adaptation. 2. The allocation of human resources is another key aspect of each department’s restructuring. In addition of managing the human resources such as provide training for special education positions and creating the work task handbook. Information resources 1. The details of restructuring technology system in each departments e.g. data transfer and delegating tasks. 2. The compromise and conciliation of dissimilar regulations in all departments related.

Is the initiative sustainable and transferable?
The initiative can be sustainable and transferable due to the following reasons; 1. Several laws and regulations of three agencies are improved, such as the transfer of legal power of the Department of Revenue to the Department of Business Development, and the Social Security Office amended its registration form for use amongst three agencies. 2. Implementation as part of the project is attached into key responsibility of each agency. This is therefore not a project base but strategic base facilitating the long-term development and implementation.

What are the impact of your initiative and the lessons learned?
Positive impact from the project 1. The e-Starting Business project demonstrates the new progress that Thailand will become another level in Ease of Doing Business. It also starts the collaboration between Thai government agencies to exchanging information and transferring data. 2. The project benefits both local and international entrepreneurs that want to start a business in Thailand under the impression of “Easier – Faster – Cheaper”. 3. It benefits both government and private sectors to eliminate unnecessary process and procedure. In addition of gaining knowledge in leaning other department’s task, regulations, and database information. Negative impact from the project The new service could create some level of confusion to the entrepreneurs due to following factors; 1. Confusion over the three given numbers (business registration number, tax payer identification number, and employer account number) at service 2. Confusion over the new registration form 3. Confusion over authority and decision-making power as part of the collaboration amongst three government agencies Lessons learned The enormity of projects success is due to the cohesive collaboration based on a shared win-win approach and objective amongst all stakeholders involved – provision of the best service to the people. The stakeholders involved from all level of decision-making process play an active role in contributing to the success as detailed as following; 1. Governmental level: ministers supervising the three agencies 2. Administrative level: Director Generals of three agencies 3. Operational level: government officials in other related agencies


Institution Name:		Department of Business Development
Institution Type:		Government Department
Contact Person:		Mr. Banyong Limprayoonwong
Title:		Director General
Telephone/ Fax:		+66 2547-4931
Institution's / Project's Website:		+66 2547-4939
E-mail:		regis_promotion@dbd.go.th
Address:		44/100 Nonthaburi 1 Rd., Bangkrasor
Postal Code:		11000
City:		Muang Nonthaburi
State/Province:		Nonthaburi
Country:		Thailand

The Problem

Solution and Key Benefits

Actors and Stakeholders

(a) Strategies

(b) Implementation

(c) Overcoming Obstacles

(d) Use of Resources

Sustainability and Transferability

Lessons Learned

Contact Information