IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The Minister of State for Works and Housing, Umar El-Yakub, has reiterated the government’s commitment to developing smart cities with world-class designs, new building technology and innovations.

This was as plans were unveiled to construct Abuja Diaspora Smart City, a model city that would provide 17,000 housing units.

The Forum, which brought together 130 senior decision maker from all the major agencies, became a platform for the Philippine Government’s IT champions to discuss their progress, successes, and challenges in e-Governance.

Remarks of USAid Philippines Mission Director Lawrence Hardy 2nd at the 3rd annual Indo-Pacific Business Forum on Oct. 29, 2020.

This year’s Indo-Pacific Business Forum, organized by the US government, the US Chamber of Commerce and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, brings together senior government representatives, private sector CEOs, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations throughout the region and around the world to discuss trade promotion and investment aimed at increasing economic growth in the Indo-Pacific region. This event also underscores the close economic ties shared by the United States and the region, as well as our commitment to the region’s long-term, sustainable and inclusive growth.

The Philippines is still not close to achieving even half of the target to transform urban centers into "smart cities," urban planner Felino "Jun" Palafox Jr. said.

Palafox told The Manila Times in an exclusive interview that despite citizens' cooperation, the country is still not close to achieving its target to transform urban centers into smart cities. He also blamed local officials for not cooperating.

Pasay City makes history as it announced the development of Pasay Eco City, the first truly sustainable eco city in the Philippines.

“We have established, among other things, our grand vision that integrates economic prowess with being environmentally sound and sustainable—Pasay City as the first ever Eco City in the country,” proclaimed Pasay Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano.

Based on the UN E-Government Survey 2014, the Philippines was categorized to be in the “Middle EGDI” together with 73 other countries. There are, meanwhile, 25 countries ranked to have very high EGDI, led by Republic of Korea and Australia; 62 countries with high EGDI; and 32 countries with low EGDI.

The high-tech facility, which is protected by a steel cage, was unveiled by top officials from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

Also present during the event were representatives from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica), which provided the bulk of the funding worth $2.3 million.

A United Nations (UN) survey showed the Philippines improving in terms of maximizing information and communications technologies to deliver service to the public. Based on the 2016 UN E-Government Survey, the country climbed 24 notches to rank 71st out of 193 countries in “e-government development.” The UN refers to e-government as the “use and application of information technologies in public administration” for data management and streamlining, enhancement of delivery of public service and expansion of communication channels.

“With Smart and Globe, you have to go outside of the house to get a signal. For Sun, there is no signal even if you go out of the house,” Pendon said in an interview with INQUIRER.net.

“Our neighbor has PLDT WiFi which I sometimes connect to but its still slow,” she added.

The Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2011-2016, which was released on May 30, “envisions inclusive growth for the country with good governance and anti-corruption as overarching theme”, according to Neda.

In the document, it was argued that “transforming the CICT into the DICT should result in a thorough implementation of the national e-strategies cutting across other critical sectors such as e-education and e-health, and the country’s representation in international and regional ICT bodies.”

Government plans to capture Filipino adults’ biometric data by 2013 to give each citizen a unique reference number he can use in transacting business with any state agency.

Secretary Ivan John Uy, chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), clarified the scheme is not a “national ID system,” which in the past raised fears of state espionage and exposure to identity theft.

“It is not a common ID (to be used in all government agencies)… but a common reference number… It’s a ‘digital ID management system,’ if you will; definitely not a national ID system,” Uy told journalists after speaking at the National ICT Summit Wednesday morning at the EDSA Shangri-la Manila.

The "Measuring the Information Society Report 2013" (MIS Report 2013) contains the IDI of 157 countries. IDI generally 'presents the level of ICT developments in countries over time. It is a standard tool that governments, researchers and the general public can use to measure the digital divide and compare ICT performance within and across countries.'

Urban planners are urged to integrate cybersecurity investments in smart city blueprints to avoid attacks on the operational technology infrastructure of the country’s future smart cities, a cybersecurity firm said.

Cyfirma president for delivery and operations Saurabh Lal told the Philippine News Agency that it is critical to integrate cybersecurity investments during the planning stage for a smart city, and not after all digital technologies are already in place.

Representing the Philippines in the signing ceremony was DOST Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) executive director Louis Casambre, while Ambassador Jorge Domecq represented Spain’s State Secretariat for Telecommunications and the Information Society of the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism.

The two countries agreed to cooperate on ICT areas such as, spectrum management, cybersecurity, capacity building, disaster risk reduction and bridging the digital divide.

According to PrimeKey Solutions AB (PrimeKey), "PKI-in-a box" is an innovative PKI appliance designed with the objective to simplify a PKI implementation with complete feature set needed to operate a full-blown PKI "out-of-the-box."

About eight percent of the total 2.2 million registered voters in Davao Region are still without biometrics, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office here.

Marlon Casquejo, director of the Comelec in the Davao Region, said that as of October 9 there were 195,326 voters in the region that have yet to comply with the mandated biometrics needed to vote.

This week’s signing into law of the bill creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology is one of the last acts of the Aquino administration over which we are tempted to ask “why only now?” Still, this is so much better than seeing it stuck in the legislative mill as it has been these past few years.

The DICT will promote ICT development, institutionalize e-government, and manage the country’s ICT environment. The new department will be the primary policy, planning, coordinating, implementing, and administrative entity of the Executive Branch of the government that will plan, develop, and promote the national ICT development agenda, according to the letter of the law.

Digital transformation (DX) will attain macroeconomic scale over the next three to four years, changing the way organizations operate and reshaping the global economy and calls this as the dawn of the “DX Economy.”

This is how the International Data Company (IDC) Philippines sees the local ICT industry for 2017 and beyond. It predicts 25 percent of its top 1,000 companies will see majority of their business depend on their ability to create digitally enhanced products, services and experiences by 2020.

Baguio City is set to push forward with its goal of making the tourist destination the first Smart City in the country with its line up of technological investments.

The country’s “Summer Capital” has partnered with tech company Cisco to create Integrated Command and Control Center.