GEN, UNCTAD, US State Department partner to ease business registration

• Global Enterprise Registration portal (ger.co) aims to simplify online business registration around the world

At the Global Entrepreneurship Summit last week at Stanford University, three partner organisations announced the expansion of a public-private partnership that is making it easier for startups to register their new businesses all over the world.

Charles H. Rivkin, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, Frank Grozel, business facilitation program manager for the UN Conference on Trade and Development and Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the development, maintenance, expansion and promotion of the Global Enterprise Registration portal (GER.co).

The portal is helping businesses by encouraging governments to develop simple online procedures, starting with business registration. GER.co has links to all business registration websites in the world, and a rating of the user-friendliness of each. A simple green dot rating lets businesses immediately see whether an online process is clear and complete, which saves them time and money.

Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of any economy. As cities and countries around the world look to stimulate economic growth, those that simplify the process for entrepreneurs to start and scale their enterprises will be the most successful.

GER.co focuses on business registration because 1.8 billion workers – 60 %  of the global workforce – are employed in the informal economy. These individuals do not have access to worker’s protections or bank accounts to grow their businesses, which translates into a huge untapped economic potential.

The signing of the GER.co MOU demonstrates the commitment of the U.S. government, UNCTAD and GEN to promote entrepreneurship globally by making business registration a simple, easy process for even the smallest firms.