THE Department of Finance (DoF) has set 2018 launch targets for key projects intended to improve the ease of doing business, addressing current hurdles to trade and access to credit information, among others.

These platforms include the National Single Window (NSW) trade facilitation system, the Advanced Security Operations Center (ASOC) cybersecurity defense system, digital registries such as the Philippine Business Data Bank (PBDB), the Credit Information System (CIS), and a movable collateral registry system under the Land Registration Authority (LRA).

“For 2018, the DoF will continue expanding the NSW to realize the goal of connecting a total of 76 government agencies online to the BoC (Bureau of Customs),” the agency said in a statement yesterday.

The NSW, also known as TradeNet, was launched in December and is expected to shorten the processing time of import/export clearances, reduce the number of transactions and required documents to be submitted.

It also serves as the Philippines’ link to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Single Window (ASW) gateway to speed up cargo clearances and promote economic integration by enabling the electronic exchange of border documents among the organization’s 10 member-states.

Currently, the system is only available for inbound and outbound shipments of rice, sugar,  used motor vehicles, chemicals such as toluene, frozen meat, medicines for humans and animals and cured tobacco, regulated by 16 government agencies overall.

“The cybersecurity system will be set up through an Advanced Security Operations Center (ASOC)  and would involve deploying communication ‘brokers’ to connect all online security appliances of each attached agency to this ASOC,” the DoF said.

“By 2021, the DoF expects the system to be fully in place and operational. The DoF will also work with the DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) to ensure the sustainability of the system,” it added.

The program aims to ensure that the government’s online portals and communication systems are secure against cyberattack.

Meanwhile, the Finance department said that the Online Unified Business Permit Application Form under the Philippine Business Data Bank “could be pilot-tested by the first quarter of this year.”

The PBDB platform — a universal registry of businesses’ public information — was piloted by the Quezon City government in December. Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran said in the statement that he hopes “to cover all 1,634 local government units nationwide within a two-year period.”

Mr. Beltran said that the online business platform will aid the Securities and Exchange Commission in seamlessly launching the CIS and the movable collateral registry this year, after the targeted approval by Congress of the amendments to the Warehouse Receipts Law, or Republic Act No. 2137, within the year.

The amendment overhauls the 105-year-old law to provide a legal basis for a computerized central registry for all warehouse receipts, which are used by the agriculture sector as collateral to obtain credit.

Farmers are issued warehouse receipts as proof of ownership of their goods stored in warehouses. Such receipts are then traded or encumbered in exchange for credit to informal lenders as banks are often hesitant to extend loans using unreliable and easily-counterfeited paper receipts as collateral.

“Both these initiatives aim to benefit micro, small and medium enterprises as the CIS would help banks assess the credit worthiness of its potential borrowers using a credit information database,  while the movable collateral registry system will enhance and simplify the process on taking movable assets, such as inventory, equipment, sales contracts, quedan and other intangible assets as collateral,” the DoF said. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

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