DTI to reformulate approach to planned e-commerce platform

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will need at least three months to reformulate the approach for its planned e-commerce platform.

In an interview with reporters, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said the planned e-commerce platform, which it originally intended to launch last year, is still an active project.

“I keep on saying that we need to do it because this serves as a transition for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) before going into the real, global arena,” Pascual said, adding that the platform would serve as an initiation for MSMEs to go into the digital economy.

“But additionally, aside from that purpose, I’m also looking at it as a system by which we can make known nationally what’s really available in the Philippines, because the moment that we initiate or we put in the global platform directly the Philippine MSMEs, their products will get eclipsed, drowned by more products entering from the different countries in the world,”Pascual said.

He explained that global e-commerce platforms feature so many more products from other countries compared to those offered by Philippine companies.

“So I’m thinking that the platform we will set up as a way by which Filipinos can really see and focus on what’s available from Philippine enterprises across different regions,”Pascual said.

In December, Pascual said they were targeting to launch the e-commerce platform on, before the end of 2022.

He said the launch of the project would’ve been fast if they just decided to implement the original design.

“But now we need at least a quarter to really reformulate the approach,” Pascual said.

“We need to incorporate and integrate the new elements that are coming up that’s why it’s delayed. The players are also evolving,” he said.

Pascual explained that the platform is also envisioned to be the basis of an e-catalog of local products available nationwide for government agencies to source their procurement requirements.

“But that will come in later. That’s a long discussion. It might require a law to mandate government offices to buy, mandatorily, not just giving margin of preference,”Pascual said.

“If a product is available locally from local producers, it should be mandatory to source it from there. We don’t want a situation where Filipino companies are subjected to competition in an uneven playing field,”Pascual said.

In November, Pascual stressed the importance of e-commerce as a tool in driving economic development during the first eCommerce Congress organized by the DTI, in partnership with the Philippine Bar Association.

The event aimed to promote a robust eCommerce environment in the Philippines, where online businesses, especially small ones, can develop and compete globally.

“We have all the ingredients – the economic assets – to make this happen: a young and digital native population, a growing middle class, available and affordable technologies, and significant surpluses in the financial sector,” Pascual said.

“E-commerce is one of the most potent tools and fastest routes in unlocking these economic assets toward sustained accelerated economic development,” Pascual said.