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Vision?
What Vision?
By Michael Alan Hamlin
July 19, 1999
All over
Asia, Internet-commerce and Internet usage is growing exponentially.
Internet-commerce revenues double annually in Japan. Despite the
decade-long recession, business-to-business and business-to-consumer
Internet-commerce have boomed even while other spending declined.
China expects to grow its 2.4 million users to 16.1 million by 2003,
and its second Internet service provider, China.com, listed last
week on the Nasdaq, and promptly soared.
The governments of Hong Kong, Malaysia,
and Singapore are madly pursuing development of the infrastructure
required to nurture local IT industrial cluster development. Hong
Kong is building a US$1.7 billion Cyberport. Singapore has launched
Singapore One, a high-speed multimedia network, and government is
providing venture capital for "technopreneurs." This month,
Malaysia's prime minister Mahathir Mohamad marched into his latest
monument, Cyberjaya, the nation's new wired capital, which lies
at one end of an ambitious multimedia corridor that is larger than
Manhattan in total area.
To get an idea of how well the Philippines
is pursuing its own IT vision, I tracked down PHNET last week. PHNET
— Philippine Network Foundation — was set up by the Department
of Science and Technology and the Industrial Research Foundation
(I didn't bother to find out what that is.) in 1993 to "shape
the future of today's Filipino youth" by linking the country
to the Internet. It also operates a national network linking, it
says, science, research, and academe.
But that was 1993. How about now?
Well, that's hard to determine. Most of the site hasn't been updated
since December 1997. The page I finally got to load — the link
must go through Iceland — was updated in February last year.
Now, for a network that is supposed to provide the capacity to its
public-sector and academic communities to conduct their affairs
at the speed of thought, in an era in which enterprise is already
conducted at Internet speed, you'd think more regular updates were
in order.
In fact, if the Home Page hasn't
been updated for a year and a half, has anything else been happening?
More importantly, compared to the rest of the region, how does the
Philippines' IT vision — and its implementation — stand
up? Let's approach that question by looking at how well government
itself employs technology to go about its business. And let's start
with the basics.
For instance, although local governments
increasingly accept checks in payment for real estate and other
local taxes, national government agencies like the Land Transportation
Office still require payment in cash. I'm not going to bother to
check this either, but I'm willing to bet that's not the case among
the competition in Hong Kong, Malaysia, or Singapore. The reason
government offices give for only accepting cash is that if a check
bounces, it will be difficult and costly for government to collect
— at least until the next renewal date.
Okay, let's say that's true, and
that all that cash from car registrations and licenses issuance
and renewal safely finds its way into government's scoffers —
I mean coffers. Accepting checks would provide an "easier way
of transacting with the government," according to businessman
Elmar M. Gomez, whose work involves electronic transaction technology.
Using debit cards would be even better than checks, since cash would
be immediately credited to the government's accounts, easing cash
flow, and reducing dependence on private-sector borrowing. In turn,
that would ease government competition with the private sector for
funds, and therefore further encourage banks to lend to consumers
and private enterprise. The result, a small but measurable boost
to the economy, and more — dare I say it? — efficient
government.
Let's go back to the cash for a minute,
though. When I have the privilege of transacting business with the
Land Transportation Office, it is most frequently with the branch
near the airport, which has such wonderful access. Now, given the
condition of this facility, which admittedly is among the worst
of any branch I have visited, how would you imagine cash is reconciled,
deposit slips filled up, and everything transported? While an electronic
audit path always provides a clear history of financial transactions,
manual accounting — an electronic spreadsheet merely automates
the manual process — obviously makes it much more difficult
to trace payments. Paper gets lost; backed up electronic information
can last virtually forever, and can be instantly retrieved.
(While we're on the subject of audit
trails, we might as well mention that until Congress finally passes
the e-commerce legislation before it, electronic transactions aren't
considered bonafide enterprise. Everything has to be on paper, which
means for the time being government actually penalizes progress.
Fortunately, chances are fairly reasonable that this will change
soon, hopefully before Congress rewrites the Constitution.)
Mr. Gomez thinks just getting all
government departments to accept checks would be a big step forward.
I'm a little more ambitious, and argue that government should move
directly to direct-debit and credit cards. Manpower savings, more
secure transactions and electronic audit trails providing less "leakage,"
and other efficiencies will more than compensate for transaction
costs.
The next step is transactions over
the Internet. For enterprise, SSS and withholding tax payments,
for example, can be accomplished for virtually no transaction cost.
For individuals, there is no reason
why income taxes shouldn't be filed and paid over the Internet,
either by direct debit, or for the "feint" of heart, if
you catch my drift, credit card. Other transactions — passport
renewal, for instance — can also be accomplished by allowing
government's clients — citizens and taxpayers — to key
into secure systems personal identification passwords known only
to them, not the bureaucrats.
That's not just for the wealthy,
either. Before long, an enterprising entrepreneur will implement
plans to dot the country with over 800 Internet kiosks, democratizing
technology. But more on that later.
Perhaps the Philippine government doesn't have the financial resources
of its neighbors, but it does have the brains. Putting technology
to work to increase efficiency and productivity — lowering
the cost of government — while making life easier on taxpayers
is a no brainer. What's important is not building a CyberMalacañang,
but demonstrating the practical benefits of information technology.
Copyright © 1999 The Events
& Awards Managers of Asia and
Hamlin-Iturralde Corporation. All rights reserved.
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