BATAAN province recently got a massive lift in its bid towards digital transformation when digital asset exchange facility Global Trade Exchange (GTX) opened last week in the Freeport Area of Bataan (FAB), a special economic zone with the fastest-growing freeport in the Philippines.
Although considered by some quarters as a bold undertaking, Jose Enrique Garcia III, the representative of the second district of Bataan, is bullish and confident that the FAB has the potential to become a financial hub utilizing the new technologies.
Meanwhile, Bataan Governor Albert Garcia pointed out that introducing changes in the Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB) charter was timely as the call for digital transformation in business became pervasive in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, Governor Garcia said the recent passage of Republic Act 11453 allows AFAB and its partners to craft an extensive ecozone package for investors who will get access to global capital, credit and liquidity. He agreed the opening of GTX is an immense boost to Bataan’s bid to become a nexus for innovation and development in the Philippines.
GTX allows cross-border trade and exchange of all classes of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens between and among international investors as well as offshore financial and market players.
iWave CEO Raymond Garcia said the goal of GTX is to ease the movement and exchange of tokenized value, which lessens the hassles between traditional and digital asset spaces. He added that GTX enables legacy systems to link and trade across jurisdictions while maintaining the sovereignty of the underlying traded asset. At the same time, it addresses structural problems inherent in traditional exchanges leveraging on various tech platforms and protocols.
Garcia said GTX is a unique platform given that it addresses pain points for issuers and investors of digitized assets while marrying it with the inherent benefits of being in a freeport. “This opens digital trading across borders and so on,” iWave Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Raymond Garcia said in a press statement. Although the new exchange allows the trading of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum, GTX is not open to Filipinos or issues because the Philippine government has not yet issued a regulatory framework on the offering of digital assets.