Embrace digital tech to facilitate trade, says institute

THE country needs to embrace digital transformation to facilitate trade, National Research Institute (NRI) acting director Osborne Sanida says.
“He said the volume of trade has increased over the years with the reduction of tariffs,” he said.
“We need to ensure that digital transformation is used to our advantage to facilitate trade.
“But we must, at the same time, guard against many adverse impacts on information explosion in this ICT (information, communications technology) age.”
Sanida said ICT provided all kinds of information in various platforms.
“So, how can we tell what is relevant and what is not?” he said.
“The producing of valid statistics and developing data is important for research, analysis and providing reliable policy recommendations.
“Digital transforms functions from labour-based to digital or electronic-based systems.”
Sanida told a Customs Business Consultative Forum yesterday that PNG was an open economy highly dependent on trade.
Commenting on PNG Customs digital transformation, Sanida said it had transitioned from manual document processing to automation of customs processing and procedures that included electronic document submission, adoption of electronic payment systems, inter-agency coordination including interagency Government systems involving clearance and others.