WTO ASSISTS MSME JOIN TRADE flOWS

ABOUT 80 percent of the transactions and work in the finance division of the Mindanao Development Authority (Minda) is still done manually despite the available accounting system.

Minda Finance Division Supervising Administrative Officer Aurora Cuello said government leaders should have a changed mindset towards e-governance for convenience and a more efficient delivery of service to the citizens.

Cuello said the Commission of Audit (COA) piloted the National Government Accounting System (NGAS) in 2000 however not all accounting departments of government agencies are using NGAS. She added the Disbursement Accounting System (DAS) they currently use under NGAS needs manual encoding of disbursements and entries to reflect to the NGAS as it is not capable of producing vouchers and reports.

“It's actually redundancy…The system is there but we have to encode everything in order to generate the reports on an annual basis, unlike the other countries who are into e-governance. They do everything online from budgeting, accounting, to disbursement,” said Cuello who was also part of the Philippine delegation who went to South Korea for a weeklong Global Distance Learning Network Program (GDLNP).

In South Korea, she said, the general mandate of their government is to have an efficient delivery of service for the contentment of its citizen. Cuello said if all the leaders of the country have the same mindset, then planning and doing towards e-governance will move.

“As for our part, we can only share what we learned in South Korea but as for implementation, it's really up to the leaders. They have to be oriented with what was taught there as well,” she said.

The accounting book reports of Minda is also available for download and viewing at the COA website although it is not real time, as according to Cuello, it takes them about five to six months from closing of the books to upload the data online.

She added COA is set to launch the updated version of their NGAS and Minda plans to set an appointment with COA to have their own NGAS upgraded for a more efficient service. SunStar Philippines

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is assisting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to trade more, including improving access to trade finance.

"Helping MSMEs to join trade flows in greater numbers will go a long way to making the trading system more inclusive and improving the lives of individuals and communities around the world," said WTO DirectorGeneral Roberto Azevedo.

Azevedo noted that the gap regarding trade finance remains huge, especially for MSMEs.

"Globally, 58 percent of trade finance requests by MSMEs are rejected, against just 10 percent for multinational companies," he said. "I have therefore been working with a variety of partners to put a focus on this issue."

He said the WTO has been working with development banks and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to determine measures to improve the supply of trade finance for the smaller players.

"Of course we need to maintain and even increase the support from the development banks to those economies where trade finance provision is weak," he added.

Apart from trade finance, Azevedo also underscored the need to increase access to information for MSMEs.

He said the WTO is working with the International Trade Center (ITC) and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to develop a platform to centralize relevant trade-related information, such as rules and regulations on exports down to the details on specific products in specific markets.

It is also working on an Open Data Initiative to better integrate WTO databases and information systems.

Such initiative will establish a Single Information Point to simplify access to information stored at the WTO and will ensure that data is open and that it can be easily retrieved.

"In addition, we will work with interested members to apply Open Data Principles to facilitate the access of trade-related information on a global scale," the WTO chief added. "This is a long term endeavour, but I believe it can significantly contribute to making access to trade-related information easier, especially for MSMEs."

Moreover, Azevedo said the WTO and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) have launched the "ICC-WTO Small Business Champions" initiative.

"We're inviting companies and private sector organizations to put forward their proposals on how they can encourage and support SMEs to do business across borders. We've had a huge amount of interest, from all over the world," he added. PHILEXPORT News and Features