The V.I. government is seeking to streamline applying for and renewing business licenses.

A first meeting to that end was held last week, bringing together the governor, lieutenant governor and various department and agency heads in discussions to pinpoint exactly where some "simple procedural changes" can be made, according to Gov. John deJongh Jr.

Overall, the goal is to make the entire process fast, smooth and efficient, Licensing and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Wayne L. Biggs saidTuesday.

"There is a continuous concern about making it as easy as possible for someone to get into business and have that entity licensed," Biggs said. "There’s also a small concern, particularly when it comes to restaurants, regarding health and fire inspections and how we can cut some time off on that end and resolve any impediments that might come up in terms of getting a license."

Business license applications turned into DLCA are subject to police background checks, zoning checks, internal visits from a DLCA inspector, along with possible fire inspection, Internal Revenue Bureau and Health checks, he added.

"So a lot of times, the delay is not internally," Biggs explained. "There are a lot of documents within the other departments that have to be compiled, so we’re trying to come up with a process so we can streamline all of that, cutting out the need for the applicant to go from office to office."

Right now, both the police and zoning checks can be taken care of through Licensing and Consumer Affairs, he added.

"You can pay for those things here, so that cuts out the first two steps," Biggs said. "We’re now in the process of being able to do that with the fire inspection. All of the entities involved in these discussions are self-evaluating and seeing where the process can be improved."

Officials will also be looking at putting in a licensing requirement for off-island service vendors, said Biggs, who added that the general consensus is that "eventually everybody is going to need a license."

Future meetings will be scheduled to finalize a policy, according to deJongh.

"Delays in the process to securing a business license not only affect the revenue stream to the government, but create hardship for business owners," he said in a statement Tuesday. "Our objective is to ensure that small businesses can put people to work and most importantly, take part in a number of the projects that the government is now initiating."

Included in the ongoing meetings with deJongh and Lt. Gov. Gregory R. Francis are Biggs, Attorney General Vincent Frazer, Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson-Doty, Property and Procurement Commissioner Lynn Millin Maduro, BIR Director Claudette Watson-Anderson, Fire Services Director Victor Browne and Health Commissioner Julia Sheen.