STATEMENT ON THE COUNTRY’S PARTICIPATION AT THE 5th CHINA-SOUTH ASIA EXPO AND 25th CHINA KUNMING IMPORT AND EXPORT FAIR

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) remains committed in supporting Filipino exporters and traders in maximizing opportunities that will help them gain access to markets such as China.

On 18 June 2018, Philippine Star published ‘PH officials no show in China expo’ mentioning that the country failed to take advantage of the said exposition by not sending representatives that would showcase the country’s products as expressed by the representatives of the Chinese Filipino Business Club Inc. (CFBCI).

The DTI is saddened by the statement provided by CFBCI in the report that mentioned the country’s lack of support to the private sector in taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the said fair. However, the DTI clarifies that the Philippines’ participation at the 25th China Kunming Import and Export Fair 2018 was discussed accordingly with the officials of the province of Yunnan during their visit to Manila last 17 May 2018, a month before the actual trade fair.

During the said visit of the officials of the province of Yunnan, the DTI expressed its support to the said fair. However, it also emphasized the lack of budget and limited time for preparation for the country’s participation at the Kunming Import and Export Fair this year and has offered to take a closer look on the proposal for the possibility of joining the fair in 2019.

On the same meeting, DTI Trade and Investments Promotion Group Undersecretary Nora Terrado also mentioned the process and the strategy implemented by the Department this year in determining strategic country participation at bigger fairs held in China. This is also in relation to the limited budget provided to the Department for trade fair participations abroad.

In record, the officials of the province of Yunnan expressed their support to the DTI’s decision not to participate this year at the 25th China Kunming Import and Export Fair and welcomed the invite of the DTI to meet with the Philippine delegation at the upcoming 1st China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai this coming November.

With the blooming trade relations between the Philippines and China, invitations and requests to join fairs and expositions in China abound from city, provincial, and national levels.  There has been an increase in inbound missions and support requests from many China-related business associations. DTI endeavors to attend to these requests to the extent of its absorptive capacity and priorities.

For this year, the DTI strategically programmed and planned the country’s bigger participation in nationally organized fairs/expositions which are:  SIAL China 2018 in Shanghai last 13-20 May, China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning on September and the 1st China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai on November. These are jointly supported by DTI’s Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) and the DTI’s Export Marketing Bureau (EMB) in close partnership with the private sector.

DTI’s Trade and Investments Posts in China (Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai) in close coordination with the home offices of DTI have been proactive in facilitating the country’s participation in trade fairs prioritized this year and have been assisting both public and private organizations for smooth coordination and synchronization of trade activities with China’s business support organizations.

In line with this, DTI seeks to gain increased support in the coming years by lobbying for bigger budget and dedicated support for the country’s increased participation in international trade fairs not only in China but also in other markets.

DTI also urges private sector organizations to continue to engage and partner with DTI in maximizing opportunities that the global trade offers to Filipino businesses and products.

*This is Press Release

Phil Trade Training Center: Home of the ASEAN SME Academy

The Philippine Trade Training Center (PTTC) paves the way to a more convenient, wider, and open-access online trainings and resources for the Philippines’ Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), as the Center becomes the new administrator of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Academy or the ASEAN SME Academy.

The Academy is a one-stop multi-platform online learning and information resource for Southeast Asian SMEs with support from US-AID, ASEAN Coordinating Committee on MSME (ACCMSME) and the US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC).

Launched at the 6th Meeting of the SME Advisory Board in Singapore on 31 May 2016, the Academy aims to provide training and mentorship to enhance ASEAN SME’s capabilities to grow and compete regionally and internationally. The Philippines, through the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), was chosen as the first country to become the Academy’s administrator.

PTTC shall also facilitate online forums that will link MSMEs in the Philippines to SMEs in Southeast Asia for the sharing of experiences on common issues, identifying best practice and replicating excellence to scale.

At present, around 50 training courses on finance/accounting, management, marketing, operation, technology, and trade/logistics from Fortune 500 companies and members of the US-ASEAN Business Alliance for Competitive SMEs are being offered.  The core of the Academy is a series of training materials for SMEs contributed by Baker & McKenzie, Facebook, Google, HP Inc., MasterCard, Microsoft, PayPal, P&G, and International Labor Organization.

In addition, the Academy contains around 350 relevant links to business information and access to a directory of service providers to whom SMEs can reach out for financial advice, corporate programs and networking.

The Academy reports that as of January 2018, it has been accessed by 49,034 people, 2,866 of which are registrants, and 658 users are completing courses on the Academy.

At present, there are 191 Academy Facilitators - 29 from the Philippines; 25 from Lao PDR; 30 from Indonesia; 27 from Cambodia; 28 from Malaysia, 19 from Thailand; and 31 from Vietnam.

The Academy can be accessed at www.asean-sme-academy.org, with link at the PTTC’s website, www.pttc.gov.ph.

The core group together with the Academy Facilitators will convene in PTTC Manila on July 27, 2018 to share knowledge, lessons learned, good practices and tools developed to promote the ASEAN SME Academy to SMEs in their networks and to formally handover the communication management to the new administrator of the ASEAN SME Academy – the PTTC

DTI Revving up for Project One: One Form, One Number, One Portal—Government to use for the first time the Design Sprints technology to improve business registration

The Department of Trade and Industry-Competitiveness Bureau, as temporary secretariat of the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA), following the enactment of Republic Act 11032 known as the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018, is set to implement its first project called Project One. Project One is designed to develop solutions to improve business registration in the Philippines.  The main objective of the project is to improve ease of doing business by streamlining the business registration process in the country, one that is focused on creating a pleasant customer experience (easy, not cumbersome nor confusing), addresses bureaucratic singularity (whole of government, one door policy) and promotes governance (data sharing, data accuracy, access to data, privacy issues).

New Zealand’s Creative HQ won the bid to support the country’s efforts aimed at significantly improving the EODB rankings of the Philippines and general ease of doing business for business owners, entrepreneurs and investors.  New Zealand presents an attractive partner to the Philippines as NZ ranks 1st in the World Bank Doing Business survey and the Starting a Business indicator of the WB DB 2018 survey.

Project One shall make use of a modern innovation format (“Design Sprints workshops”, a method developed by Google Ventures to solve specific business problems and validate potential solutions in just five days.)  The three workshops shall cover the following:

Design Sprint 1 (July 23 – 27, 2018):  Creation of a “Wikipedia” of LGU registration process.  DILG and DICT to collate and publish the most up to date processes for LGUs in one place.  This will increase inter-agency collaboration, and provide highly useful information to business and investors, and increase transparency of LGU related information online. This concept follows the desire expressed by the Philippine Government to create “one portal” for all business-related information held by Government.

Design Sprint 2 (September 3-7, 2018): Develop the implementation framework for a Philippine Business Number to provide a single, unique identifier that can be used by businesses when transacting with any government agency. This concept follows the desire expressed by the Philippine Government to use “one number” for all government transactions.

Design Sprints 3 (October 1-5, 2018): Develop a prototype for an end to end registration application that allows business owners to complete their business registration on one website / application.  This was viewed as the ultimate leadership challenge as this is an excellent opportunity for the Philippines to become one of the first countries to adopt a business registration process that can be completed (end to end) on a mobile phone. This concept follows the desire expressed by the Philippine Government to use “one form, one portal” for all business to government transactions.

“Project One is the perfect start as the Anti- Red Tape Authority (ARTA) carries the torch of initiating the GovTech revolution in the Philippines. With the passage of the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Delivery Services Act, DTI’s efforts at pursuing reforms will be further strengthened.The law mandates all government agencies including LGUs to automate business registration procedures, and we are glad that it will be the first time that our government will use the Design Sprints, as innovation” DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said. 

Last year, the New Zealand government provided assistance by conducting a scoping mission to identify hurdles in business registration and showcase New Zealand’s expertise in EODB.

“We are ready to initiate online application, One Form, One Number, One Portal for business registration, and we could realize this by putting technology to work. We do not just automate the process but transform the way government is doing business.” Lopez added.