The report, however, urged the country to further improve local telecommunication infrastructure in order to deliver basic services more effectively.
The country improved its ranking from 47th last year and in the report, was cited as one of the biggest gainers among developing countries that also included Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Malta and Estonia.
According to the UN study, the Philippines has developed a “solid presence” across all stages of e-government, covering most of the basic functions and features while simultaneously developing transactional facilities and connecting portals of various agencies.
The report, though, pointed out the lack of formal online consultations mechanism and the need to strengthen the quality of Web sites at the ministerial level to match the quality of the main portal.
In a separate text box, the study complemented www.gov.ph for being “on par with the best in the world and could be considered a good practice”. A dedicated E-services section within the portal integrates information across agencies departments and provides a single window for all government services available online.
Moreover, the study also complimented the Philippine government portal as one of few national sites that offer wireless access via Short Message Service (SMS) and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), though which the public can submit comments on news items and policy-making processes.
Infrastructure woes
The UN report centered on three aspects: Web presence, the extent of connectivity (infrastructure), and human skills/educational level of the people (human capital).
The Web measure index assesses the Web sites of the governments to determine if they are employing e-government to the fullest. In this category, the Philippines ranked 19th among Top 25 countries. The country likewise did well in human capital index, which was based on adult literacy and enrolment in schools.
But the country scored low in the infrastructure index. While the study noted that the Philippines has more or less the same type of services offered by government Web sites of First World countries, a more mature Internet infrastructure is needed to deliver these services more effectively.
“Notwithstanding the expansion in e-government programs, access to all in these developing countries remains limited with greater efforts needed to expand the outreach of basic telecommunication infrastructure to all people,” the study said.
"It is very fortunate that the UN recognizes the country's efforts in terms of e-government. Through this, we were able to gain good stature in terms of providing government content online," said Tim Diaz de Rivera, Commissioner for eGovernment Development of the CICT (Commission on Information and Communications Technology).
De Rivera, who is also concurrently director general of the National Computer Center (NCC), added that the government would have to work harder and increase its efforts for better delivery of public services online.
The UN study examined e-readiness among government Web sites in 191 UN-member countries. The ten highest-ranked countries are: US, Denmark, Sweden, UK, Korea, Australia, Singapore, Canada, Finland and Norway.
The study stressed huge disparities in the access and use of information technologies, and that these disparities are not likely to be removed in the near future unless a concerted action is taken at the national, regional and the international levels.
According to the findings of the study, e-government readiness is related to the existence of high and middle-income groups, which were present in the Top 50 countries. “In the last decade these countries have invested considerable resources in e-government, which is reflected in their higher e-readiness,” the study added.
Autor: Lawrence Casiraya
Quelle: ComputerWorld Philippines, 06.02.2006
