MANILA, Philippines -- Having Internet presence benefited local government units (or LGUs) in terms of a better tourism economy and faster public services. The next step, according to the Commission on ICT (CICT), is making these websites more interactive.
More than 90 percent of LGUs (or nearly 1,690) have websites as of the end of last year, according to the National Computer Center (NCC), which is under CICT.
But only 450 of these LGU websites have "some level of interactivity", according to Tess Camba, NCC field operations director and head of the government's eLGU project.
"The challenge now is to upgrade these websites to have e-payment features," Camba said during last Friday's ICT month celebration at the CICT headquarters in UP Diliman.
CICT recently launched its "e-Bayad" online payment system, designed for smaller government agencies that do not have payment mechanisms for Internet-based transactions. CICT is likewise looking to deploy this system for LGUs.
The eLGU project was started in the early part of the decade and aside from building websites, the goal is to create software applications especially for provincial or municipal governments.
NCC has started deploying the eRPTS (real property tax system) and eBPLS (business permit and licensing) in some LGUs. A third application, eTOMS (treasury and office management system), is under development and will be piloted starting next year.
"For most LGUs, having websites boosted the local tourism business as well as increased exposure for local products. Some of these websites also have offered assistance for overseas Filipino workers and their families here," Camba said in an interview with INQUIRER.net.
In most cases, Camba said websites have enabled LGUs to increase revenue collection by allowing citizens to transact online while at the same time, making these services more efficient for end-users.
"By 2010, our goal is to enable all LGUs to accept payment transactions online and deploy common applications to at least half of them," Camba said.
