Philippines leaps forward in e-government with cloud-first strategy

The Philippines has jumped 16 places in the United Nations E-Government Development Index, rising from 89th in 2022 to 73rd in 2024. This significant leap is attributed to the country's embrace of centralised cloud services and efforts to reduce inefficiencies.

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is spearheading this digital transformation. Managing over 600 national government agencies and supporting 1,700 local government units, the DICT addresses agency technology needs, ensures unified goals, and synchronises ICT budgets. This coordinated approach minimises duplication of effort and promotes a streamlined digitalisation process.

Central to this transformation is its cloud-first policy, which encourages agencies to embrace cloud computing and move away from legacy, siloed systems that have resulted in manual 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 further reduces redundancy and inefficiency. “We’ve eliminated duplicated systems by the different government agencies, as well as repetitive and complicated cloud services, datacentres and systems,” Almirol explained. “This saves costs and does away with the need for complex integration processes.”

The same principle also ensures that citizen and business data, once submitted, is securely stored and shared across relevant agencies, eliminating redundant submissions. This is exemplified by the eGov PH Super App, which provides access to a range of government services, from national ID applications and permits to health benefits and tourist information.

The DICT now leads the development of shared cloud services, providing a common infrastructure for agencies to build upon. “This centralised model allows agencies to develop their services, while securely managing and maintaining their data,” said Almirol.

Almirol also emphasised the importance of a strong foundation for future developments: “When building something, if every part operates vertically without a strong foundation, it will collapse later on. Our priority is to create a strong foundation to support future developments.”

As the Philippines moves towards becoming digital-first, data security is key. The government has committed to data sovereignty to protect citizens’ data, and ensure that the data collected is stored within its borders.

It is also investing in secure datacentre facilities, ensuring that its digital infrastructure is built with strong encryption and meets compliance standards to safeguard the stored data.