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Treasury & Capital Markets
Finance chief to lead Philippine e-government push
Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III says the Philippine government is pushing for an automated business and citizen data bank portal that will pave the way for e-governance.
Darryl Yu 8 Nov 2016
Finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III says the Philippine government is pushing for an automated business and citizen data bank portal that will pave the way for e-governance.
“This portal is the beginning of e-governance for our country. It will serve as the primary tool for cutting red tape and reducing processing time for government frontline services,” Dominguez tells participant at The Asset 11th Philippine Forum in Davao City. 
“The data bank portal will contribute greatly to improving the ease of doing business in our country. There will be a single database for verifying business and government records. If the ease of doing business improves, this will enhance the flow of investments to our economy, creating millions of new jobs for our people,” he adds. 
The secretary emphasized during his speech that e-governance is about making government function as well as a private enterprise using information-technology infrastructure.
The DOF partnered with the newly formed Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to develop the data bank portal. 
As part of that plan, the government aims to simplify the often criticized tax process. “At the Department of Finance (DOF), I set up a task force to look into ways we could simplify procedures to better serve our taxpayers and importers and exporters,” states Dominguez. “I asked the BIR to simplify tax forms and to make their offices more pleasant and more client-driven. The task force soon began working on much larger things, such as simplifying import-export documentation.”
For Dominguez, eroding slow bureaucracy procedures will usher in a new era of growth for the Philippines. “I suspect that the weak culture of entrepreneurship we often complain about is, at least in part, due to the difficulty in setting up a business. Government agencies behaved as gatekeepers instead of enablers,” reflects Dominguez. 
The DOF predicts that the new government information system should be harmonized in the next year or two. “The elimination of red tape is just one of many measures we are implementing with the end goal of reducing poverty in a dramatic manner,” says Dominguez. “Reducing red tape enhances business and investment inflows. In turn, businesses and investments will create jobs as well as improve productivity. That will impact on unemployment and therefore poverty.”
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