President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is eyeing to digitize government transactions at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and other revenue collecting agencies to streamline their operations with a view to combatting rampant smuggling.
Malacañang said more modernized data and transaction handling could significantly push the country’s economic development.
The President said the country has to solve the issue of unabated smuggling in the country, with practically almost all kinds of commodities being shipped to the country through illegally channels.
“It may be beneficial to examine successful approaches used by other countries and apply them in the Philippines, the Chief Executive said.
“The bureaucracy has to be streamlined. The ease of doing business is because we’re talking about trade. So digitalization is going to be a very important part of that. We have to digitalize Customs. We have to digitalize all of these collecting agencies so that the BIR, even the Central Bank, the payments can be made over the internet. All of those things that we don’t do now,” Marcos said.
One of the earlier recommendations was to open up the database to the BOC and the Department of Agriculture (DA) to ensure efficient information sharing.
The DA and the BOC have a data-sharing agreement meant to facilitate the exchange of information on traded agricultural products.
The accord which is governed by the Philippines’ Data Privacy Act was one of the pacts forged between the DA and BOC to ensure that local agri-fishery products remain competitive.
Through the setup, each agency can promptly share and act upon critical and intelligence information.
The President also acknowledged the importance of digitalization as a key driver for long-term development and for the economic transformation of the post-pandemic global economy