HONOLULU – The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs' (DCCA) Business Registration Division (BREG) received top honors for its online government services. The International Association of Commercial Administrators (IACA) awarded the state with first place for the 2007 Merit Award for having the best navigable business registration website. The award was presented at the annual IACA conference in Seattle on May 14.

The award recognizes online business registration websites in four categories: consistent navigability, logical categorizations, ADA compliance and appearance. Hawai'i received the highest cumulative score among other states, provinces, territories and countries.

"We are proud to have Hawai'i recognized internationally as the best among peers for providing this excellent service to the public," said Tung Chan, division chief of the Business Registration Division. "The Documents Registration staff, our Information Technology department and our collaborative partner, Hawai'i Information Consortium, deserve a hearty mahalo."

The department's online registration services are part of the Lingle-Aiona Administration's efforts to provide businesses with the best available accessibility to government services.

"We are pleased that the department's online services for business have been recognized as some of the best in the world," said DCCA Director Lawrence Reifurth. "We hope the public will take advantage of our online government services for business transactions as we continue to improve government efficiency and innovation."

DCCA's online services are administered through Hawai'i Business Express (HBE). HBE is a multi-agency initiative that provides one-stop online registration services to new and existing businesses. New businesses can register their business with DCCA and apply for identification numbers from the State Departments of Taxation and Labor and Industrial Relations in one, online session. More information about HBE may be found at http://pahoehoe.ehawaii.gov/BizEx/. Since the creation of HBE, more than 33,000 businesses have been created online in Hawai'i.

IACA is a leading professional association for government administrators for business organization and secured transaction record systems at the state, provincial, territorial and national level. IACA members include government agencies administering business entity regulations in the United States, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand and Australia. For more information, visit www.iaca.org.