Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez said that a government technology (GovTech) revolution is needed to automate business registration.

To fast-track this concept, Sec. Lopez met with Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary Dennis Villorente; Peter Wallace and Romy Bernardo from the Wallace Business Forum; and Sanjeev Wadhwa of tech company Unysis last August 7.

“Fill out. Pay. Print. We envision opening a business to be a three-step process, done entirely through mobile phones. This calls for a GovTech revolution, not just streamlining processes,” said Sec. Lopez.

The recently-signed Ease of Doing Business Act gives the government one year to establish a Philippine Business Data Bank and three years to automate business-related transactions. DTI serves as the lead agency for ease of doing business reforms, while waiting for the establishment of the Anti-Red Tape Authority under the Office of the President.

“We don’t need a perfect, one-page form right away. What’s important is we get it out there and improve it along the way,” said the trade secretary about Project One, which would come up with one form for all government agencies.

DICT Usec. Villorente agreed and called this a DevOps mindset. He also said that the government should remember that the “citizen is the customer” of these reforms. DICT is the agency tasked to build the infrastructures needed to support the nationwide automation of business registration.

Unysis, an IT company that worked on similar projects for other countries, has offered their services to assist the DICT. The parties are looking into a public-private partnership, wherein Unisys will build and operate at the onset, and transfer the technology to DICT later on.

The company will have further meetings with the DTI Competitiveness and Ease of Doing Business Group (CEODBG) and the DICT for this possible partnership.♦

Date of Release: 09 August 2018