PHL e-governance at 71st in report
By Janina C. Lim, Reporter
THE COUNTRY slid four notches in the United Nations’ 2018 E-Governance Development Index survey.
The UN’s recent report, themed “gearing e-government to support transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies,” showed the country slipping from 75th to 71st place in 2016.
Overall, however, the Philippines posted an increase with a higher eGDI score of 0.6512 from 0.5766.
The eGDI is the UN e-Gov Survey component that measures the readiness and capacity of national institutions to use information and communications technologies to deliver public services.
The index computes eGDI based on three subsectors: the Online Service Index, Human Capital Index (HCI) and Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII).
The Philippines posted higher scores in OSI (up 0.8819 from 0.6667), which measures the use of ICTs by government in delivering public services at the national level, and in HCI (up 0.7171 from 0.6839), which measures the development of human capital.
However, the country’s score declined in the TII, which determines the status of development of telecom infrastructure. It fell 0.3547 from 0.3791 in 2016.
In the e-participation index (EPI), the Philippines leaped 48 notches — to 19th from the 67th ranking it posted two years ago.
EPI focuses on the use of online services to facilitate provision of information by governments to citizens, interaction with stakeholders and engagement in decision-making processes.
The biennial e-Government Survey is the only global report that assesses the e-government development status of all 193 member-states of the UN.
“It serves as a development tool for countries to learn from each other, identify areas of strength and challenges in e-government and shape their policies and strategies in this area,” the report added.
The UN e-Government Index is one of the competitiveness surveys monitored by the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Competitiveness Bureau.
For his part, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said in a statement on Thursday: “We laud our country’s upgrade in the UN e-Participation Index, which measures an economy’s effort to establish online tools on government portals that promote public participation through public consultation and decision-making process.”
He added: “We expect an upward trajectory as we further pursue efforts to promote GovTech (Government Technology) in the Philippines with the passage of the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act.”
Under Republic Act 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018, a Central Business Portal and Philippine Business Databank will be developed and maintained by the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
