TradeNet platform to link 20 government agencies by mid-year

MANILA, Philippines — The government continues to harness the powerful tools of information and communications technology (ICT) to reinvent government and make it more responsive, accessible and accountable to the people.

In a statement, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said ICT has been integrated into government processes to enable the economy to best adapt to the wave of disruptive technologies and be at the cutting edge of modern governance.

He cited the TradeNet platform established by the Department of Finance (DOF) is aimed at linking 66 government agencies through a common database to minimize the cost of doing business in the country. This will reduce the processing time, number of transactions and required documents for import and export clearances.

The agency expects 20 government agencies to be connected to TradeNet by the middle of the year, and soon serve as the country’s link to the ASEAN Single Window (ASW), a regionwide platform that would “immeasurably” enhance intraregional trade.

“As we embrace the inherent disruptions of modern technologies, we would soon be reinventing government itself to make it more responsive, more accessible and accountable to its citizens. As they absorb and adopt emerging technologies, governments will never be the same again. We are prepared to take that challenge,” said Dominguez in a speech read for him by Finance assistant secretary Paola Alvarez at the 2ndAnnual Philippines OpenGov Leadership Forum held last week.

The DOF was recognized during the event for its efforts in establishing the TradeNet platform.

Besides TradeNet, the government has also launched three parallel initiatives including the Government Cloud Service (GovCloud), the PHPAY platform, and the Philippine Business Data Bank (PBDB) that form part of its “comprehensive deployment of ICT to enhance governance efficiency.”

The GovCloud was 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, while PHPAY platform was initiated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to function as a centralized online payment portal, transactions ledger, and reconciliation system.