Ms. Lucy Chalmers and Ms. Erica Ferguson of Standards Australia led the PH participants in the Focus Group Session.

The DTI’s Bureau of Philippine Standards, together with the Standards Australia, organizes a half-day Focus Group Session on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-Australia Digital Trade Survey, on 11 May 2018 at the 6F Penthouse Boardroom of the Industry and Investments Building in Makati City.

The focus group session is a preparatory activity for the two-day ASEAN-Australia Digital Standards Trade Workshop which will consider the standardization and interoperability of data in the area of security, privacy, cloud computing and distributed systems, governance and data sharing, among others. It involves relevant stakeholders of ASEAN and Australia from industry, government, regulators and National Standards Bodies (NSBs) to be held in Sydney, Australia in August 2018.

The Focus Group Session will bring together the leading national stakeholders to discuss the current digital infrastructure in the Philippines, the awareness of, and engagement with international standards process, and the potential for future ASEANAustralia collaboration to identify and develop economic opportunities.

The Bureau of Philippine Standards (BPS) as the National Standards Body (NSB) of the Philippines is the lead agency for standards and conformance activities in different international and regional initiatives where Philippines is a member such as the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and, the World Trade Organization (WTO).♦