Peña, who is also executive director of the Information Technology and Electronic Commerce Council, said the proposed e-government office would link up key government agencies to simplify government procedures.
He cited the case of overseas Filipino workers who have to go to 12 government agencies and get 70 signatures before they are allowed to leave the country.
He explained that the proposed e-government center inside the Fort Bonifacio Global City would seek funds for application development to help form an Internet database in which government information traffic would be centralized.
According to him, the Arroyo administration is focusing on five areas of development in the ICT sector. These include physical infrastructure, e-government, human resource development, legal and regulatory framework and business development.
To date, only four government agencies have computerized their services. These are the National Statistics Office, Land Transportation Office, Land Registration Authority and Department of Foreign Affairs.
He added that the government is now trying to improve the internet penetration rate in the country which is currently pegged at 3 percent.
On the other hand, he added that the Philippines has one of the largest cellular phone subscriber base with over 14 million users as of last year.
More than 10 Canadian companies are in the Philippines as part of the Canadian Wireless Trade Mission to Southeast Asia that would also cover Malaysia and Thailand. These include Nortel, Argus Technologies, Hickling International, LeBlanc International, Mobilair Integration Inc., Redknee Inc., Spectrocan SR Telecom, Superna Business Consulting, Telos Technology and Wysdom.
Quelle: ABS-CBN-News
