The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is harnessing digitalization to ease doing business further and develop more knowledge-based industries.
Tereso Panga, director-general of PEZA, in his speech at the Digital Pilipinas event last week, said the agency aims to put up its own industry excellence centers to serve incubation facilities for start-ups that will boost the country’s competitiveness in the manufacturing and information technology-business process outsourcing sectors.
PEZA leads in the setting up of knowledge, innovation, science and technology parks where it promotes synergies between the academe and the industries to engender scientific studies, innovations.
Panga said these high-tech ecozones can promote research and development and commercialization of patents, and the various industry upskilling/reskilling measures for advanced manufacturing and Industry 4.0
PEZA is also implementing digitization efforts that will eliminate the difficulties in doing business with the enhanced anti-red tape processes and the provision of green lanes for investors through Executive Order No. 18.
PEZA will launch e-Letters of Authority or e-LOAs to replace its manual process for approving and monitoring movement of ecozone shipments.
PEZA is also among the very first few agencies in government to have adopted cashless and paperless system for business transactions.
“We have partnered with Astrolabe and Digital Pilipinas for the continuous improvement and stakeholders’ capacity building initiative on financial economic services that would eventually be integrated in the Philippine financial systems and platforms. Likewise, we are collaborating with the DICT (Department of Information and Communication Technology) in promoting digitalization to enhance office efficiencies, customer satisfaction and the delivery of services for a much-improved ease of doing business. In other words, we want to be a trailblazer in this field,” Panga said. Irma Isip
