ARMM magnifies ICT for good governance

• Source: http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?nid=13&rid=946306
• Thursday, December 8, 2016

(PNA), LAP/NYP/EOF

COTABATO CITY (PNA) -- The information technology chief in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) said information and communications technology (ICT) has greatly improved over the years in the region, thereby improving governance.

Abdelnur Campong, chief of the ARMM governor’s ICT office, said there were no efforts in establishing ICT in the regional government before 2011.

"Better and brighter compared to previous years," Campong said, adding that there were no efforts in establishing ICT in the regional government before 2011.

Today, all regional line agencies have their own websites and instituted database systems even as the ARMM government created an ICT office through an executive order.

When ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman assumed office in 2011, among the the first reforms he introduced was bringing the regional bureaucracy into the internet world.

Campong said the regional government continues its efforts to further develop and improve ICT in the region.

To further develop ICT in ARMM, the 1st ICT Summit starts today to make the stakeholders knowledgeable of the latest trends and technology that could be used in the efficient delivery of government services.

“Our focus here is to improve the services in the ARMM, particularly in the regional government,” Campong said.

The summit gathered all industry stakeholders, especially those from the government and the academe, as well as professionals and students to discuss current trends and challenges facing the ICT sector in the region and in the country.

“We established systems at the office of the ARMM governor such as human resource information system, Electronic New Government Accounting System, Database, Radio-Frequency IDentification, and many other systems,” Campong said.

“Definitely, mas brighter at maganda ang estado ng ICT ngayon ng ARMM kaysa dati (Definitely, we now have brighter and better state of ICT in the region unlike before),” Campong added.

Five speakers are to discuss topics relevant to governance in the regional government. Campong said the development and effective integration of technology to government services pave the way to better governance in the region.

The ICT chief said the summit focuses more on data management. "It will also deal on topics how to establish our baseline data to be used in the present and future administrations for decision-making, and program proposal drafting,” Campong said.

Among the partners of the ARMM government in the ICT event were the Department of Information and Communications Technology, Philippine Computer Society Foundation, Trend Micro, Indra Philippines, and Microsoft Philippines.