The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) has received the Best Online Public Service Award for its TTBizLink platform at the Ministry of Public Administration’s (MPA’s) Public Service Excellence Awards ceremony held on Thursday, June 20, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port of Spain.
The platform is the national Single Electronic Window (SEW) for Trade and Business Facilitation that provides citizens with 24/7 access to applications for various trade and business-related government services. The MPA award recognises and rewards ministries, departments or agencies that demonstrate excellence in delivering exceptional online services to citizens. It aims to promote innovation and technological advancement in e-government by highlighting and rewarding those services that have effectively leveraged digital platforms to enhance accessibility, efficiency and user experience.
Since its launch in 2012, TTBizLink has revolutionized the trade and business landscape of Trinidad and Tobago by improving the ease of doing business. The platform currently provides (from end-to-end) 36 government e-services from 22 government departments across seven ministries together with the Tobago House of Assembly and the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce. To date, over 4,800 companies and over 45,000 individuals utilise the platform on a regular basis to conduct transactions for licences, permits, certificates and other regulatory approvals.
The platform contains several key features that facilitate efficiency including access to detailed guides and application checklists; pre-populated fields; upload of supporting documentation in several formats; sharing of internal comments between approving agencies; access to performance data by agencies; use of electronic signatures; receipt of approved documents electronically; and online payments.
In addition, the SEW has undergone two major developments in recent years. The first was the launch of the informational arm of TTBizLink, the Trade and Business Information Portal (TBIP) in May 2022, and the second was the launch of the TTBizLink Enhanced Application Software in July 2023.
The TBIP continues to provide access to valuable tools and resources such as step-by-step guidance on importing/exporting goods, regulatory requirements for investments and access to an HS Code and Tariff Finder, updated legislation, trade agreements, bilateral investment treaties, and customised market intelligence tools developed by the International Trade Centre. Through its software enhancements, the platform is now more agile, scalable, and user friendly.
TTBizLink continues to partner with several government ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture Land and Fisheries, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of National Security, and the Ministry of Works and Transport.
The Award for Best Online Public Service, adds to TTBizLink’s list of international and local recognition for its innovative approach to improving public services and for outstanding service delivery and which includes:
- Category winner for Innovation in Institutional Co-ordination in the 2019 Inter-American Award in Innovation organized by the Organization of American States (OAS).
- Second place at the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB’s) 2018 President’s Award for Service Excellence and Innovation in the Public Sector.
- Category winner for Improvement of Public Services in The Awards of Excellence in Electronic Government (excelGOV) 2016 organized by the Network of e-Government Leaders of Latin America and the Caribbean, with the support of the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank.
- Diamond Standard Certification (2015) from the Ministry of Public Administration (MPA) for excellence in service delivery in the public sector.
- One of three finalists in Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) 2014 International Innovation Awards in the category of Innovation in Government Services and Programmes.
- Category winner for Promoting Whole-of-Government Approaches in the Information Age in the 2013 United Nations Public Service Awards (UNPSA).
