GLOBE Business recently co-presented the country’s first e-Governance Forum, organized by the Chief Information Officers’ Forum (CIOF) and the Chief Information Officers’ Forum Foundation (CIOFF).
The event was also organized in cooperation with the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and the e-Governance for Efficiency and Effectiveness (E3) Project.
The forum, titled “Public Service 2.0: From e-Government to e-Governance,” aimed to engage various stakeholders to support the objectives and programs of the CICT. It also encouraged the participants, which included executives from the public and private sectors, to help promote and advance the ICT landscape of the government and the entire country.
Best practices
Local and international industry experts shared key learning and best practices during the event. Among the notable speakers were Dr. Toshio Obi of Japan’s Graduate School of Waseda University, who spoke about Global Asean Trends in e-governance, and Microsoft Philippine managing director John Bessey.
Globe Business enterprise segments head Jesus Romero shared his insights on mobile governance and discussed how government agencies can extend their reach and enhance service performance by bringing services and information closer to citizens and businesses. He highlighted how mobile governance can address the need for wider reach for public service, citizen involvement, cost-efficiency, and faster, convenient and real-time services.
Romero said mobile governance can be employed in government to government (G2G), government to businesses (G2B) or government to citizens (G2C) transactions.
Ordinary transactions such as redemption of Social Security System (SSS) benefits, payment contributions and business permit applications, can now be made more accessible through mobile applications.
Fees
Citizens and businesses can also pay business permit fees, SSS contributions and taxes through mobile payment facilities such as GCash. This solution guarantees secure, fast and convenient money transfers with the speed and cost of a text message.
Government agencies, on the other hand, can broadcast reminders regarding health care information, and public safety and weather announcements, via an SMS facility such as TxtConnect.
This service allows government offices to be within their constituents’ reach by being able to provide information on demand.
Public Service 2.0 also showcased successful e-Government initiatives through the launch of the Philippine e-Government Awards. Among the seven winning projects were the Road Info and Management Support System of the Department of Public Works and Highways, E-Governance for Municipal Development of the League of Municipalities, and Mobile Revenue Officers System (MROS) of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Globe Business is the enabler of the MROS project, providing BlackBerry handsets and BlackBerry Internet Service to the BIR.
This equipped the Revenue Officers with a mobile solution that assists them in their Tax Compliance Verification Drive Project. It also gives the officers a convenient electronic means of accessing taxpayers’ information online through their wireless devices.(PR)