Hotel industry gets timely shot in the arm

SETTING up a hotel is now a breeze - no more requirements for multiple permits and licences, not to mention the single day it now takes to register the business with the Companies Commission of Malaysia.Thanks to the Special Task Force to Facilitate Business, otherwise known as PEMUDAH, a 23-member task force set up by the government on February 7 this year that puts senior public and private officials together to untangle red tape and help smoothen the public delivery system.Ivo R Nekvapil, vice-president of the Malaysian Association of Hotels, said that the establishment of a one-stop centre where setting up a hotel in the country now requires only one licence instead of the usual 15 licences and permits, will enable the local hotel industry to be more competitive in the region.

(31-1-2008 The Star)