RP ranks high on UN e-governance survey

by Pia Lee-Brago - PhilStar

The Philippines ranked 17th among 191 countries in the United Nations' survey of countries utilizing modern technology and innovations to improve public administration, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

A panel at the 7th Global Forum on Reinventing Government at the UN Headquarters in Vienna last Thursday cited the partnerships between the Philippine government and the private sector in monitoring polluters through the Bantay-Usok and Bantay-Kalikasan programs.

The programs were cited by the UN survey as a model of how technology enables citizens to participate actively in governance.
This observation was affirmed in a UN report in 2006 which identified the Philippines as one of the top 25 countries employing technology or e-government tools to the fullest.

The new UN survey ranked the Philippines 17th, sharing the place with Austria, among 191 countries using a web-measure index that assessed the quality of government websites and the level of utilization of information and communications technology (ICT) tools to provide information and establish Internet-based interactive and transactional services.

At the top of the survey were the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Republic of Korea and Denmark. The Philippines also ranked fourth in e-government readiness among countries in Asia, next only to Singapore, Republic of Korea and Japan.

E-government readiness takes into account the web-measure index and the level of telecommunications infrastructure and human capital development.

The UN survey also cited that the Philippines' integrated portal www.gov.ph is "on a par with the best of the world" and could be considered a good practice."

The survey also pointed out that it is one of the few national sites in the world that offers a wireless access alternative for users, either through Short Message Service, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or through a Pocket PC section.

The Philippines was also ranked 15th in the e-participation index among countries which provide access and opportunity to the citizen through development of participatory initiatives via ICT.