The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Director General Tereso O. Panga and Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Bienvenido Y. Rubio recently solidified a legacy reform project through the signing of a Data Sharing Agreement for the further enhancement of the monitoring of movements of ecozone goods under the Electronic Transfer of Containerized Cargo (E-TRACC) system.
Launched in 2020 through Customs Memorandum Order No. 04-2020, the E-TRACC system tracks the inland movement of containerized cargoes upon release from the Port of Discharge / ecozone for transit to the destination ecozones / port of loading for import and export, respectively.
The Data Sharing Agreement now allows PEZA to have access in tracking, monitoring and auditing the location and condition of cargoes, as well as obtain real-time alarms on diversion and tampering of cargoes. This is to ensure that importation and exportation of tax- and duty-free goods arrive and reach the intended PEZA economic zones / port loading.
Furthermore, it particularly promotes the integration, interoperability and interconnection of both agencies’ respective systems in direct compliance to Executive Order 18 that establishes Green Lanes for strategic investments as mandated by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
Commissioner Rubio stated, “We firmly believe that sharing secured data with PEZA will enable us to coordinate our efforts and drive collective improvements toward seamless trade facilitation. Surely, this will pave the way for improved day-to-day operations and will further buttress our trade facilitation performances.”
Echoing this, DG Panga expressed, “We subscribe to the BOC’s objectives of trade facilitation as our way of enhancing the competitiveness of the Philippines for trade and investments. To do this, we believe that digitalization is the key, increased adoption of automation, so that we can enhance our ease of doing business and facilitate even more the movement of cargoes of our locators.”
In line with this agreement and the efforts of the agencies towards digitalization, PEZA also reiterates its full support to the implementation of Electronic Zone Transfer System (eZTS) as contained under Joint Memorandum Order (JMO) No. 2-2015 dated 24 July 2015.