Interior and Local Government Secretary Jessie Robredo, NICP chair Jocelle Batapa-Sigue and CCTP President George Sorio signed a Memorandum of Agreement establishing a strategic approach to stimulate the country’s good governance initiatives to enable LGUs to become catalyst of change and index model of development anchored in the Philippine Digital Strategy (PDS) 2011-2016 which foresees the emergence of intelligent enabled-cities with full access to information and services anytime, anywhere.
Speaking during the signing, Secretary Robredo emphasized the need for institutional capability and sustainability as well as significant outcomes as a result of using ICT as a tool for local government processes.
The National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP), in partnership with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Cyber City Teleservices Philippines Inc. (CCTP) last week launched in synergy the first eGov Awards for local government units (LGU’s).
Interior and Local Government Secretary Jessie Robredo, NICP chair Jocelle Batapa-Sigue and CCTP President George Sorio signed a Memorandum of Agreement establishing a strategic approach to stimulate the country’s good governance initiatives to enable LGUs to become catalyst of change and index model of development anchored in the Philippine Digital Strategy (PDS) 2011-2016 which foresees the emergence of intelligent enabled-cities with full access to information and services anytime, anywhere.
Speaking during the signing, Secretary Robredo emphasized the need for institutional capability and sustainability as well as significant outcomes as a result of using ICT as a tool for local government processes.
Batapa-Sigue said the objective of the awards is to encourage the effective and efficient utilization of information and communications technology (ICT) in the delivery of services and performance of the duties and responsibilities by local government units (LGUs). It also aims to commend, collate and document best practices of LGUs in integrating ICT in their processes to serve as example and benchmarks to other LGU’s, to improve the business ecosystem of the LGUs and motivate the private and business sector to actively participate and/or invest in the growth of the LGU’s , and to promote transparency in governance.
The NICP-DILG-Cyber City’s strategic thrust is also aligned with the Philippine ICT Roadmap 2011-2016, representing the Philippines renewed vision for ICT and its use in transforming Philippine Society into a competitive force in the digital economy by the year 2016.
The eGov Awards is the first to be given by the ICT sector to LGUs with exemplary performance in empowering its public customers and business. In November 2012, the first awardees will be honored during the 5th NICP National ICT Summit in the City of Sta. Rosa, Laguna hosted by its the Laguna Industry Network for Knowledge, Innovation & Technology Foundation (LINK-IT).
In said summit, the almost forty (40) ICT councils representing provinces and cities from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao are meeting annually to review, evaluate, plan, share best ICT practices.
The eGov awards aim to recognize two (2) major categories namely, the Best in eGov Customer Empowerment (G2C) Award and the Best in eGov Business Empowerment (G2B) Award.
The LGU eGov Awards share the vision of establishing indices for local government units across the country in harnessing the potentials of ICT towards raising the bar in delivering public service. By drawing attention to the best practices in integrating ICT capabilities and solutions, the different sectors of society, government units are enabled in their roles as catalyst of change.
Sorio hopes that with the NICP-DILG-Cyber City partnership, the country will see the proliferation of revolutionary ICT initiatives that will support clearer, wider and faster access to information in our local governments and transparency will change the way we define professionalism, trust and service.
Application forms are downloadable at www.egov.com.ph