DTI, DICT e-commerce platform project delayed
MANILA, PHILIPPINES — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said that its e-commerce platform for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) has faced delays, stating that they need to “reformulate the approach.”
Trade chief Alfredo Pascual said that the project, which is a collaboration between DTI and the Department of Information Communications and Technology (DICT), will require a quarter to be recalibrated.
“The estimate is that we need at least a quarter to reformulate the approach,” Mr. Pascual told reporters in a recent chance interview. “But it is still an active project. I keep on saying that we need to do it because it helps the transition of local MSMEs before going to the global arena,” Pascual added.
The project was scheduled to be launched before the end of 2022.
“We need to incorporate and integrate the new elements that are coming up, which caused the delay. The [e-commerce] players are also evolving. The original partner that we talked to, they might have to go to a different way of approaching it,” Pascual said.
Aside from being a stepping-stone for MSMEs, the e-commerce platform is also seen to help increase consumer awareness about the various products offered by local MSMEs.
“I’m also looking at it (e-commerce platform) as a system by which we can make known nationally what’s really available in the Philippines. This is because the moment we put into the global platform directly the Philippine MSMEs, their products will be eclipsed, drowned by many more products that are coming from different countries in the world,” Pascual said.
“The platform we will set up will serve as a way by which Filipinos can really see and focus on what’s available from Philippine enterprises across different regions,” he added.
