IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The study points to a rapid growth in postal e-services in recent years with 85 services of this kind having been introduced in 2010 alone, compared to 33 in 2007.

However, even though postal e-services are considered increasingly important, the study also revealed that some posts are still not giving them enough attention in terms of financing, market development and organizational management.

'Permits, licenses, land titles should now be electronically-applied for, processed and issued. Let us leave to the MRT the exclusive franchise of organizing long lines,' says Senator Ralph Recto

Leave the long lines to the beleaguered Metro Rail Transit and away from government-issued permits, licenses and land titles.

Director Cynthia R. Nierras of the Department of Trade and Industry and RICTC vice chair, presided over the planning workshop which was attended by members from the national government agencies, academe, and private sector representatives and other stakeholders.

Director Nierras was thankful to the members of the committee and was happy of the outcome of the two-day planning workshop which was carried out in one day as the initial inputs was already done during the 1st RICTC Meeting, a day before the ICT sectoral planning workshop.

There are various measures in bringing about transformation in the way government can enhance the regulatory compliance ecosystem. Over the years, the following measures have been undertaken: capacity building and training of government employees, enlightened leadership, incentivizing good performance of bureaucrats, sanctioning below par performance, organizational structure changes, designating champions, oversight by civil society, streamlining of procedures, and anti-red tape legislation. To effect transformation in the delivery of public service towards enhancing the regulatory system, the synergy and combination of these various measures are required.

A complete rollout of the system, called the National Telehealth Service Program, is targeted next year, Technology Secretary Mario G. Montejo said in a recent press briefing.

“This is our answer to the problem of doctor-less municipalities. People can be diagnosed of illness even if the doctor is not present in their area.”

Local IT stakeholders, particularly the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP), said the CICT may have been downgraded to justify the placement of the broadband deal under the DOST and not the CICT or the DOTC (Department of Transportation and Communications).

It was awe-inspiring to see the updated blue-print of the New Clark City unveiled by Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) President and CEO Vince Dizon during the Pre-SONA in July 1. Construction of the Phase 1A, which includes an athletics stadium that can seat 20,000 individuals, and an aquatics center with a seating capacity of 2,000 will be finished by October 15. This is just one of the many phases of this ambitious $14-billion and three-decade long project that will boast sustainable buildings cleverly designed to reduce water and energy usage for an eco-friendly and cost-efficient living.

New Clark City boasts as the country’s first smart and resilient metropolis. But the concept of smart city is nothing new.

"Through our partnership with RLC, we bring our services much closer to our more than 1.7 million members and pensioners," President and General Manager Robert G. Vergara said.

The agreement covers the deployment of GSIS Wireless Automated Processing System (G-W@PS) kiosks at the Lingkod Pinoy Center located in Robinsons Malls.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has renewed his push for a bill seeking to accelerate the installation of free public internet connection in public schools nationwide.

Gatchalian filed Senate Bill No. 383 or the proposed Digital Transformation in Basic Education Act as Vice President and Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Duterte bats for free internet in all public schools.

Senate Bill 1030, authored by Senator Lito Lapid, requires all registered voters whose biometrics have not been captured to appear before election officers and have their photographs, fingerprints, signatures and other identifiable features be captured through biometrics.

Under the measure, the photographs, fingerprints, signature and other identifiable features will be stored by the data capturing machine of the automated election system that has been adopted by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Senator Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian is pushing for the digital transformation of the basic education sector to provide for the proper implementation of remote learning amid the extreme summer heat.

“Kailangang paghandaan natin ang posibleng mas mainit pang panahon sa mga susunod na taon lalo na’t patuloy ang climate change at global warming,” Gatchalian said in a statement on Sunday, April 14.

(We need to prepare for possibly even hotter weather in the coming years, especially as climate change and global warming continue.)

Angara said the government should commit to long-term funding for collaboration between private investors, the academe, government, and international institions in five areas.

Among those areas is information and communications technology (ICT) which will be centered in Cebu.

A smart city built by the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH) will soon rise in Clark Freeport Zone, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Friday.

The government-owned Clark Development Corporation (CDC) and LH have already inked a smart city memorandum of understanding (MOU) on April 15 at Songdo Inernational Business District in Incheon province, some 30 kilometers southwest of Seoul.

File-sharing Web sites abound, allowing users to access and manipulate software, music files, photos and other forms of data. Popular social Web sites allow users to share information in ways incomprehensible just a decade ago.

Sharing information is a phenomenon that benefits both the general public and the government. While a shared information system keeps one updated on news, trends and events, government agencies are using this system to effectively exercise greater vigilance, collaboration and open information exchange, in the pursuit of efficiency. One clear example is the initiative to raise tax revenues, notably by concentrating efforts on taxpayers who refuse to pay the right taxes.

Is the Philippines ready for smart cities? Last week, I had the privilege to speak at the 8th Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) congress, and the theme was “The Rise of Smart Cities and Communities.” I delivered a presentation about smart mobility, which was my article last week. Today, I will describe the broader concept of smart cities.

Basically, smart cities harness information and communications technology and integrate it with development planning to deliver more efficient and high-quality urban services that ultimately enhance the quality of life in the city. Smart cities are driven by big data collected by various technologies. The data is transformed into programs and systems that improve how we live in our cities. Citizen-centric — this makes big data ideal because part of it comes from the information gathered from the city’s residents, so smart programs and systems can be tailored to address their needs.

Planning a smart city is not simply an exercise in deploying the most wondrous new technology. If the Philippines’ planners have their way, future city architecture will serve as a tool for making prosperity more broad-based, and attractiveness to investors more sustained. In other words, the building works may be critically important on the surface, but the social engineering may matter more in the long run.

According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the whole point of smart cities is to create a “high trust” society that is globally competitive and knowledge-based. Practically speaking, that means a city of fewer metal detectors and a lower expectation of street crime, leaving residents free to pursue their own prosperity in an increasingly connected world, untroubled by the usual urban inconveniences.

The lone story on page 5 of a major daily last Monday had this headline: Phl affirms support for Asean Smart Cities Network. On page 4 of that same issue, the lone story had this headline: DOJ denies harassment in P108-M tax raps vs Rappler.

Even if your level of discernment were just the size of a mustard seed, you would readily scream “What?” Given that there is no way of reconciling the two, I will explain.

Pursuing a smart city status wherever in the Philippines is not only the sole responsibility of the government (both from local and national), it can only work if all sectors collaborate to invest in making a city smarter.

A smart city is a technologically modern urban area that uses different types of electronic methods and sensors to collect specific data. This data is used to improve the city government’s operations to make it more efficient in meeting the needs of its residents. This also ensures a better quality of government service and citizen welfare. Examples of smart cities around the world are Singapore, Dubai, Amsterdam, New York, and London, among others.

The advent of technology can no longer be undermined, specifically its major impact on various societies. To further elucidate this phenomenon, the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge and the Harvard Business School Executive Education have curated some of the basic output of their study, aptly themed "Leading in the Digital Era." It is very easy to just quote its findings in a Western context, which is constantly bolstered by the First World economy, which I do not intend to do in this column.

But what I hope to convey and provoke in the minds of institutional heads and executives in this column is how to come up with a digital leadership framework based on our very own context as a developing country, and to muster every effort to climb from the bottom to a realistic level of advancement.

In Central Luzon, some 100 kilometers from Metro Manila, construction is in full swing on the Philippines’ very first ‘smart city’. New Clark City is a 9,450-hectare mixed-use development within the Clark Special Economic Zone masterplanned to address the pain points that make many of our big cities nearly unlivable: the congested roads, the pollution, the high cost of utilities, the inability to weather natural disasters. Like all smart cities around the world, New Clark City is a chance to get it right.

Besides their heavy reliance on technology, smart cities are distinguished by their people-centered focus and sustainable practices. There is emphasis on carving out wide, open, pedestrian-friendly spaces and making mass transit easily accessible to discourage the use of private vehicles. Some have gone a step further and are already powered by renewable energy (RE) and are looking at further deployment of these sources as part of their smart city plans. These are what Deloitte calls smart renewable cities (SRC).