REGISTRATION is crucial for the development of small family businesses, said officials from the Department of Cottage Industries under the Ministry of Cooperatives.

Cottage industries were often the starting point for more advanced enterprises and once registered would have access to facilities provided by the department to improve their operations, said its assistant director, U Hla Tun.

“Registration will boost the opportunities for their development,” U Hla Tun said.

Cottage industries usually lack proper technical production methods, so the main benefit for them would be introduction of modern technology to upgrade the quality of their products, he said.

Other benefits included ensuring products meet industry standards, arranging commodity exhibitions to attract domestic and foreign customers and opportunities to study and attend meetings overseas to gain more expertise.

“By registering, the department will be able to provide these opportunities free of charge or at low cost,” said U Hla Tun.

He said registration was also important to ascertain production figures needed to calculate gross national product.

“As cottage industries represents a wide range of businesses, their lack of registration results in a lessening of the country’s GNP. So we encourage every industry to register,” he said.

An assistant director of the department’s office in Mandalay, U Swe Tint, said assistance could only be provided when cottage industries applied for registration.

He said once the department began examining an industry’s operations as part of the registration process, it tried to foster improvements by helping to overcoming weaknesses in production technology and management techniques.

Under the 1991 Promotion of Cottage Industries Law, optional registration was introduced as a way of enhancing family businesses.

Cottage industries can apply for registration, which involves a small initial fee and a annual review fee, at the department’s offices in Yangon and Mandalay and at its 14 weaving schools throughout the country.

Nearly 7900 cottages industries have registered, but the department estimates that about 35,000 remain unregistered.

U Swe Tint said the main reasons why so many businesses remained registered was because it was not mandatory and that many remained unaware of the advantages.

“Businesses that don’t register miss many opportunities for improving their operations,” he said.

During the last two years, an education program to boost awareness of the benefits of registration has been conducted in rural areas by the department, with the assistance of local government authorities.