The Department of Finance (DOF) continued to spearhead programs on cutting red tape and improving the ease of doing business in 2018, with the government’s online trading portal that automates licensing, permits and other trade procedures going live in December and successfully linking up with other regional economies through the ASEAN Single Window (ASW) System.

President Duterte last May also signed into law the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Act of 2018, which aims to reduce red tape significantly and “make government more responsive to the needs of entrepreneurs,” said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.

“We will complement the EODB Law with several programs encouraging digitalization of all government procedures. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), for instance, is working double-time on streamlining processes for documentary requirements for renewing business permits,” Dominguez said.

The ASW, which is a regional initiative that aims to enable the electronic exchange of border and customs documents among the ASEAN’s 10 member-states, is currently being finetuned to ensure that it goes live by 2019. The online trading portal TradeNet is the Philippines’ link to the ASW.

A report by the DOF’s Inter-Agency Business Process Interoperability Project (IABPI) team said the members of the ASW Working Group on Technical Matters has agreed that they should start preparing the exchange of other cross-border trading documents such as the electronic Phytosanitary certificate, electronic Animal Health certificate, and electronic ASEAN Customs Declaration Document (e-ACDD).

Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are already using the ASW to exchange information on customs clearances.

In the Philippines, four agencies have started coordinating for the exchange of electronic trade documents via the ASW–the Bureaus of Customs (BOC), of Plant Industry (BPI) and of Animal Industry (BAI); and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Select exporters invited by the BOC last September have started sending electronic Certificates of Origin (eCOs) to ASEAN member-states using TradeNet.

Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran, the DOF’s anti-red tape czar, said these pilot importers are TS Tech Trim Philippines, Inc. (TS-TTPI), Toyota Motor Logistics Philippines, Inc. (TMLPI), Toyota Tshusho Philippines Corp. (TTPC), Mondelez Philippines Inc. (MPI), Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. (PMPMI)and Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc. (IMEI).

“Automation of trade processes thru the TradeNet which (went) live in December 2018 will further reduce trade data discrepancy, improve revenue collectors’ capabilities and at the same time, facilitate trade,” Beltran said.

Beltran said that once TradeNet is fully operational, traders may apply online for import and export permits for commodities such as rice, sugar, used motor vehicles, chemicals (toluene), frozen meat, medicines (for humans, animals, or fish) and cured tobacco.

The Duterte administration’s goal is to have all 76 regulatory government agencies across 18 government departments fully interconnected. TradeNet will simplify import and export documentary processes covering an initial 7,400 regulated products.

As of November 2018, a total of 24 agencies have completely identified tariff classification and codes for all their regulated commodities.

These 24 agencies include the BPI, Board of Investments (BOI), Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Standards (BAFS), Bureau of Philippine Standards (BPS), Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ), Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), Energy Resource Development Bureau (ERDB), Export Marketing Bureau (EMB), and the Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau (FTEB).

The Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA), Forest Management Bureau (FMB), Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA), Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), National Book Development Board (NBDB), National Food Authority (NFA), National Meat Inspection Services (NMIS), National Museum (NM), National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), National Tobacco Administration (NTA), Optical Media Board (OMB), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA), Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PFIDA), and the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) have also completed the identification of tariff classification and codes for their regulated goods.

Dominguez said that aside from TradeNet, the government is also working on three parallel initiatives that form part of its “comprehensive deployment of information and communications technology to enhance governance efficiency.”

These are the [1] Government Cloud Service (GovCloud) launched recently by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to serve as the National Government Portal for all government information, transactions and services; [2] PHPAY platform initiated by the DOF to function as a centralized online payment portal, transactions ledger and reconciliation system; and the [3] Philippine Business Data Bank (PBDB), which is a search engine for all registered businesses in the country that will be available online for government agencies to verify records for business registration and permits.

Beltran said the Land Registration Authority (LRA) is also setting up a movable collateral registry which is mandated under the Personal Property Security Act that now allows the use of “movable assets” such as inventory, equipment or vehicles as collateral for bank loans. The law, which will benefit mostly micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), calls for a centralized registry to enable lenders to check the collaterals of loan applicants and ensure that they are not being used to secure other loans.

Meanwhile, GovCloud will help to significantly reduce red tape and corruption as well in applying for permits, clearances and other similar documents, while PHPAY will provide government agencies “a way to interface their service websites to payment facilitators, banks or credit card gateways, making it easier for private users to pay for permits or applications,” Dominguez said.

PBDB will bring together for easier reference the available business registries from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), as well as from local government units (LGUs)

The DOF is also involved in the following initiatives: 1) Budget-Treasury Management System, which will enable policymakers to know, in real time, how much revenues are collected and remitted to the government treasury and how much expenditures will need to be paid within the day so these transactions can be implemented promptly; 2) National ID system, which will enable government to provide services to citizens promptly; 3) Company Registration System of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has enabled corporates and partnerships to register online; and 4) Tax Exemption System, which has cut processing time for tax exemptions and reduced business costs.

On improving the ease of doing business, Dominguez said that on top of delivering the EODB Law that intends to streamline government frontline operations and make it easier to apply for or renew business permits and licenses, the government likewise established a national identification (ID) system, which will allow it to “more efficiently deliver social services to our citizens.”

During last November’s Sulong Pilipinas regional workshops–the annual consultative meetings held between the government and the private sector–among the suggested actions proposed by the business community was the appointment soon of a director-general for the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA), so that the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the EODB Law can be issued and its provisions can be set in motion.

‘The high cost of doing business, we have addressed that with the Ease of Doing Business Law and hopefully, that will be implemented very shortly,” Dominguez said in a separate forum.

Dominguez said the new financial technologies (Fintech) being developed will open a wide horizon of business opportunities for MSMEs as these would, in the future, make it easier to implement peer-to-peer lending, equity crowdfunding, merchant and e-commerce finance and invoice finance.

“The financial world is being revolutionized by new technologies. We are responding promptly to make the advantages offered by fintech accessible to our enterprises,” Dominguez said.

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