IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

A first in Mindanao, Misamis Oriental government doctors have formed a partnership with Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) to enable medical practitioners to do consultations with patients online. The use of wireless technology was designed to improve medical care, especially in surgery, under its Smart’s Mobile Surgery Services Project.

A special order issued by the DOST’s Information and Communications Technology Office (ICT Office) creates a special working group tasked to develop the Philippine eGovernment Interoperability Framework (PeGIF), which will define the e-government that will be established.

The country slid four notches in the United Nations’ 2018 E-Governance Development Index survey.

The UN’s recent report, themed “gearing e-government to support transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies,” showed the country slipping from 75th to 71st place in 2016.

Information and communications technology (ICT) has been hailed by many governments around the world as the great enabler to achieve a higher degree of efficiency, better productivity, stronger transparency and improved government service to the people.

Politicians in a developing country such as the Philippines got the point.

One year later, the banner of President Aquino’s campaign promise – combating corruption – places the Philippines on the global radar screen for its efforts in pursuing transparent and open government. Thus, on the sidelines of the UNGA, the Philippines, together with seven other countries and nine civil society organizations, compose an international steering committee that will convene the first meeting of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) – a new multilateral initiative that “aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance.”

The country was ranked 66th overall in the 2008 UN E-Government Readiness report, down from 41st in the 2005 study.

Several Asian countries likewise slipped down in the UN index including India, Singapore and Thailand. The Philippines is a few notches below China and Thailand.

In a statement, Allcard Philipines said contactless smart card technology has been in existence for two decades now and has been proven reliable in other countries.

“The danger is the possibility of our (present) system not being recognized by other countries which are using contactless card technology,” said Allcard marketing manager Franz Reyes.

‘Smarter Philippines’ consists of the following components: Smarter Governance, Smarter People, Smarter High-Tech Industry, Smarter Computing, Smarter SMEs, Smarter Agriculture World Development, Smarter Environmental Healthcare, Energy and Transport, Smarter Disaster and Mitigation, Public Safety and Smarter Cities.

Long has the country held the reputation for its young, skilled, and technology-enabled population. In fact, the annual We Are Social’s digital report regularly ranks the country as among the most active internet and social media users on the planet.

This bespeaks of strong economic fundamentals that could carry the country’s economic narrative to further heights post-pandemic. Given that the current pandemic situation is controlled, the World Bank sees the Philippine economy expanding at 4.7% in 2021, before accelerating to 5.9% in 2022 and 6.0% in 2023, contributing to renewed progress in poverty reduction.

All eyes are set on the developments made in Central Luzon as the first phase of the construction of the country’s first “smart city” is now in full swing. This long-sighted planned community, called the New Clark City, is envisioned to cater to the reoccurring problems of the national capital — the congested roads, excessive flooding, the high costs of utilities, overcrowding, and more importantly, the lack of resiliency to natural disasters.

This year, the Global Peace Index of the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) revealed that the Philippines is one of the most vulnerable to climate change, especially because of its high exposure to natural hazards, such as typhoons, landslides, floods, and droughts, as well as its heavy reliance to its climate-sensitive natural resources.

The concept of smart cities is gaining traction in the Philippines, as the country accelerates its efforts to modernize its infrastructure and improve the quality of life for its citizens. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a key enabler of smart cities, and the country is making significant progress in deploying IoT solutions to improve various aspects of urban living, from traffic management to waste management.

One company that is playing a pivotal role in the development of smart cities in the Philippines is Packetworx. The company specializes in providing end-to-end IoT solutions that enable smart city applications, such as intelligent lighting, smart parking, and air quality monitoring. Packetworx's IoT platform provides a scalable and secure infrastructure for connecting and managing IoT devices, enabling real-time data analytics and insights for decision-making.

South Korea's state land development agency will create a smart city infrastructure in a special economic zone near Manila. The smart city linked to an international airport would become a logistics hub city with infrastructure for tourism, recreation aviation maintenance.

Under an agreement with Clark Development Corporation (CDC), Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) will build the smart city in the Clark Freeport Zone in Mabalacat some 82 kilometers (51 miles) northwest of Manila. The zone is designed to attract various industries by providing incentives. A railroad will connect the zone with Manila.

Vice Mayor Charles Lin was invited to represent Taiwan’s Kaohsiung City government at the Second Quarter-2024 Regular National Executive Board Meeting of the Vice Mayors’ League of the Philippines (VMLP) last month in Manila.

In his keynote, Lin discussed the topic: “People-Oriented Smart Cities: The Experience of Kaohsiung City” that highlighted recent efforts and successes in developing a smart city and its urban transformation. At the event, he exchanged insights on urban governance with local vice mayors and officials nationwide.

Health Services

“Our focus has always been on ICT projects that impact and benefit multiple agencies,” said Casambre, whose team is working with the Department of Health (DOH) on getting the systems interoperable.

Open Data Philippines is an open source Drupal-based platform, that currently houses more than 600 datasets on categories such as economics, labour, transport and traffic, environment, geospatial data, health, education and many more.

How can governments promote financial transparency and efficiency, whilst at the same time keeping their electronic payments secure and compliant? A FutureGov gathering of 27 senior finance officials from the Philippines’ public sector attempted to answer that yesterday, with the help of electronic payments specialists from Visa.

The initiative follows the successful adoption of the same project by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office. At present, pension payments of both agencies are now being coursed through Automated Teller Machines rather than check payments.

“By switching from check to ATM payments, our retired uniformed personnel can gain better and easier access to the benefits due to them. Not only does this expedite the process for claiming benefits among pensioners. It is also a definite step toward improving transparency in the pension release system, which used to be rife with irregularities,” said Florencio Abad, Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management.