The Workshop on the ASEAN e-Phyto Certificate
The virtual workshop on ASEAN Single Window and e-Phyto Certificate had been successfully conducted during 18-19 January 2021, which was attended by the representatives from the Working Group on Technical Matters for the ASEAN Sanitary and Phytosanitary Contact Points (ASCP), the ASEAN Single Window (TWG-ASW), and also from the ASEAN Secretariat.
The workshop that was in partnership with the ASEAN-USAID Inclusive Growth in ASEAN through Innovation, Trade and e-Commerce discussed on the difference of data structure of ASEAN e-Phyto certificate and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) e-Phyto Guideline. Participants discussed and collaborated concerns on ASEAN context with a view to obtain a common understanding and agreement on the data structure of e-Phyto certificate which would be used as an ASEAN standard document exchanged through the ASEAN Single Window
Facilitating the discussions, ASEAN-USAID IGNITE consultant Dr. Ian Hogg gave a presentation on the data structure alignment with some key points below:
- ASEAN e-Phyto Certificate is already aligned to IPPC e-Phyto guidelines, but it was based on version 1.0, but the current version IPPC 2.5.
- The ASW Message Information Guideline is more detailed than IPPC e-Phyto guidelines; many of the gaps have already been agreed by AMS.
- Aligning to version 2.5 of IPPC e-Phyto guidelines will facilitate the exchange to 43 countries via the e-Phyto Hub.
In addition, Dr. Ian Hogg also explained the technical issues and challenges to connect the ASW with Dialogue Partners systems such as the data security and single point of failure, by using the e-Phyto Hub as the case study.
At the end of the workshop, the ASEAN Member Stated had raised concerns on data alignment which would be applied to the data structure of ASEAN e-Phyto certificate. ASEAN-USAID IGNITE would further provide the technical support and proposed the revised version for ASEAN e-Phyto certificate, which would be considered and subsequently adopted by the ASEAN Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF). The end-to-end test of e-Phyto Certificate using the revised data structure is target by the end of 2021 among the ready ASEAN Member States.
