The Philippines placed 16th in the UN E-Government Development Index, up from 89th in 2022 to 73rd in 2024. This important increase is attributed to the country’s efforts to reduce inefficiencies and embrace centralized cloud services.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology ( DICT) is spearheading this digital transformation. The DICT, which manages over 600 federal government agencies and supports 1, 700 regional government units, addresses agency technology needs, coordinates ICT budgets, and coordinates and maintains unified objectives. This organized approach reduces effort waste and promotes a smooth digitisation process.
Central to this transformation is its cloud-first policy, which encourages agencies to embrace cloud computing and move away from legacy, fragmented systems that have resulted in human processes and complicated, time-consuming transactions.
” Digitalisation is not just a streamlining process, it’s also about making things simpler and solving a lot of issues”, said David Almirol, undersecretary for e-government at the DICT, at the recent Tech Week Singapore conference.
The government’s “once-only” principle more reduces redundancy and inefficiency. ” We’ve eliminated duplicated systems by the various government agencies, as well as repetitive and complex cloud services, datacentres and systems”, he said. This reduces costs and eliminates the need for lengthy integration steps.
The same principle also ensures that citizen and business data, previously submitted, is securely stored and shared across related agencies, eliminating redundant submissions. The eGov PH Super App, which gives access to a variety of government services, including national ID applications and permits, as well as health benefits and tourist information, serves as an illustration of this.
The DICT then oversees the creation of shared cloud services, providing an open platform for organizations to build on. Almirol stated,” This centralized model allows agencies to develop their services while firmly managing and maintaining their data.”
Almirol even emphasized the value of a solid foundation for upcoming developments. ” When building something, if every part operates diagonally without a strong foundation, it will collapse after on”, he said. ” Our top priority is to lay a solid foundation for the development of the future.”
As the Philippines moves towards becoming digital-first, data security is vital. To safeguard the privacy of citizens ‘ data and ensure that it is kept within its borders, the government has committed to data sovereignty.
Additionally, it is investing in safe datacenter facilities to make sure its electric infrastructure is protected by stringent encryption and complies with regulations governing data protection.
