By Melissa Tan

BOSSES have no doubt what tops their wishlist for making life easier here - reduce the number of permits and licenses and make it simpler to get them.

The view emerged from an online survey conducted across the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) zone between March and this month. It is also clearly an issue across the region with business people in Malaysia, Indonesia and China also complaining about the difficulty of securing permits in their countries.

Mr Teng Theng Dar, chief executive of the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), told The Straits Times that he was not surprised by how important streamlining permit applications was for companies.

'All permits are cumbersome, as far as businessmen are concerned. They will always want to cut red tape,' said Mr Teng, who is also chairman of the Apec Business Advisory Council (Abac), which conducted the survey.

Consultant Esther Wong, who advises small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), said that 'obtaining a permit to employ foreign workers' is one of the most pressing issues for her clients. 'Some permits can be very expensive to obtain.'

Abac presented its preliminary survey findings yesterday at a joint dialogue session with the SBF.

The online survey asked 218 business people across 19 economies to identify regulatory barriers and propose reforms.

Singaporeans made up 16 per cent of the total and half the total replies were from SMEs.

Abac will present its findings to senior Apec officials later this month.

Ministry of Trade and Industry deputy director Cheong Wei Yang said that a dialogue on removing 'structural impediments' to business has been going on for four to five years.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.