SICOD
Promoting International Trade through E-Government
The consortium of Carana Corporation/Washington Consulting Corporation and Bixal recently completed the first phase of a project to improve the Panamanian Ministry of Commerce's (MICI) ability to manage trade agreements. As part of this effort, Bixal designed a comprehensive information system to support the Ministry's tasks related to the management and administration of the agreements, including the agreement with the United States (TPA).
The recommendations for the implementation of the system based on Microsoft SharePoint platform, known as SICOD (for the Spanish acronym), were the result of a thorough assessment of the information system that the Ministry had in place, the benchmarking of similar initiatives in Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico, and a thorough understanding of the Panamanian government agency’s mission and mandates.
The three main results of this initial effort were impressive. First, SICOD was able to adopt a much more holistic approach, integrating and taking advantage or existing resources while improving its ability to monitor and administer trade agreements by adopting an innovative technical solution recommended by Bixal. Second, by empowering the organization with the right tools to facilitate both internal and external communications, the organization is now able to more effectively respond to the concerns of the private sector, civil society and the general public. And third, by providing greater access to its wealth of resources, SICOD was able to empower users at all levels with the necessary information, a step forward to promoting trade while enhancing transparency.