The Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) recently jointly convened the National Single Window (NSW) Summit 2022 at the F1 Hotel, Bonifacio Global City.

With the theme “Towards the Next Generation of the Philippine National Single Window”, the NSW Summit 2022 supports the call of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., during his first State of the Nation Address, in promoting streamlined processes at BOC through information and communications technology solutions.

This event aims to further expedite the advancement of the Philippine NSW for the effective and efficient implementation of simplified, harmonized, and automated trade procedures.

BOC Commissioner Yogi Filemon L. Ruiz, Mr. Tengfei Wang and Mr. Dennis C. Pantastico both from the United Nations ESCAP, OIC Deputy Commissioner Kriden F. Balgomera from the BOC-MISTG, Ms. Flordeliza Leong from the Philippine Exporters Confederation, and representatives from the NSW Steering Committee (NSW SC) and NSW Technical Working Group (NSW TWG) were present during the event.

During the interactive panel discussions, Single Window experts from the Republic of Korea, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand shared their experiences and underscored the numerous factors that needed to be taken into full consideration when developing a Single Window system such as trade facilitation measures, adoption of onboarding methodologies, cross-border e-commerce, and paperless trade, application of innovative application of emerging technologies, legal frameworks to support data quality, data protection, data privacy, governance, ownership, among others.

Ms. Rupa Chanda, Director, Trade, Investment, and Innovation Division from the United Nations ESCAP emphasized the quote from the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, “…as we recover and rebuild, digital technology will be more prominent and important than ever”, as the highlight of the NSW Summit.

Under the leadership of Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz and through the progressive development of single windows in various countries, the Bureau of Customs commits to moving forward to the broader use of Single Window towards becoming an “Institutionalized, Informed and Innovative” digital trade facilitation solution for the country.