DOF focusing on 3 initiatives to improve ease of doing business

November 5, 2017

The Department of Finance is harnessing the power of digital technology to implement three major initiatives in improving the ease of doing business in the country.

According to Dr. Dennis Reyes the DOF’s technology modernization architect, these three programs are the TradeNet platform for traders, the establishment of the Philippine Business Data Bank (PBDB) down to the local government level, and a parallel modernization initiative in the DOF, the Bureaus of Internal Revenue (BIR) and of Customs (BOC).

“Under the Anti-Red Tape Program or ARTA, we have these multiple initiatives that are now ongoing,” Reyes said at a public forum organized by the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) to discuss the Philippines’ efforts to further improve its current ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business (EODB) index.

Reyes said the TradeNet platform, which will also serve as the Philippines link to the ASEAN Single Window gateway, will be up and running by the end of the year and will later place onboard a total of 66 government agencies “progressively over the course of the next two to three years.”

The PBDB will involve the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), which chairs the NCC, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the country’s economic zones and over 1,600 local government units (LGUs), Reyes said.

This Data Bank will allow the online processing of business permits by LGUs as part of the Duterte administration’s continuing initiatives to improve the ease of doing business in the country.

“We're also working internally in DOF to harmonize and modernize the Department, and working closely right now with BOC and BIR in facilitating the modernization initiatives,” he added.

DOF Undersecretary and Chief Economist Gil Beltran, had earlier explained that TradeNet.gov.ph, which will also perform the functions of the country’s National Single Window (NSW), will allow traders to use the system to apply for import and export permits for rice, sugar, used motor vehicles, chemicals (toluene), frozen meat medicines (for humans, animals or fish) and cured tobacco.

The NSW, which will eventually be interconnected to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Single Window, is a regional initiative that aims to speed up cargo clearances and promote economic integration by enabling the electronic exchange of border documents among the organization’s 10 member-states.

In the Doing Business Report 2018, the Philippines slipped by 14 notches to 113th from the previous 99th place among 190 economies. The World Bank said the latest ranking was not comparable to the 2017 report because of "methodology refinements." DMS