Canadian organization to help RP with e-governance project

By Alexander Villafania - INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines -- The National Computer Center, along with two other local organizations, have signed an agreement with the Canadian Executive Service Organization (CESO) to implement the “E-Governance for Municipal Development,” which aims to improve local governance, reduce cost of operations and increase revenue generation.

The project, which is being implemented by the CESO in behalf of the Canadian International Development Agency, will also involve the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) and the Mayors’ Development Center, Inc. (MDC). These bodies identified the municipalities that will benefit from the E-Governance for Municipal Development project.

There will be over 40 recipient municipalities in Luzon, who will be given training on computer use to improve the operation of their respective facility.

Among the recipient provinces are Pangasinan, Pampanga, Bataan, Tarlac, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, Laguna, Cavite, Quezon and Rizal.

Recipient municipalities shall be assisted in being trained and implementing three local government unit system application software and these are the Real Property Tax System (RPTS), Business Permit and License System (BPLS) and Treasury Operations Management System (TOMS).

By improving the operations of local government units, they are expected to speed up processing of business permits and entice more potential investors to their respective provinces, while ensuring transparency and efficiency.

CESO representative Gale Arlene Lee said the initiative is to complement CESO’s small and medium scale enterprise development efforts in the Philippines by reducing, if not eliminating, unnecessary transactional costs to entrepreneurs.

The project also aims to enhance the E-Commerce Act of 2000, which requires all government agencies to use IT methods to improve their entire operational system.