A joint report of the United Nations and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) calls for the amendment of the Philippines’ Electronic Commerce Act (E-Commerce Act) recommends amending the E-Commerce Act to facilitate transactions that use digital signature.
The “Readiness Assessment for Cross-Border Paperless Trade: Philippines” report launched last month calls for easing the requirements for the recognition of electronic and digital signatures and facilitate cross-border paperless trade.
There have been many calls to amend the Act to make it easier to prove the validity of an electronic signature and facilitate electronic notarization.
Updating the Act can also serve to provide expressed recognition of smart and automated contracts, the UN-BOC readiness assessment report said.
To boost cross-border digital trade, the report said the country should accede to the UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications.
Accession will allow for uniform rules to be established on the recognition of electronic contracts and communications in cross-border transactions.
The Philippines signed the UN Convention way back in 2007 but still needs to formally accede to the treaty.
The World Economic Forum in a report said digital IDs are a way of verifying identities remotely over digital channels. They can authenticate not just users electronically, but physical and digital objects as well so products can be tracked all the way from raw material to shelf.
