State of ARMM’S ICT ‘brighter and better’

COTABATO CITY – The information technology chief of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) describes the state of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the region as “better and brighter” compared with previous years.

Abdelnur Campong, chief of the ARMM governor’s ICT office, said there were no efforts in establishing ICT in the regional government before 2011. Now, Campong added, all regional line agencies have their own websites and instituted their database systems even as the ARMM government created an ICT office through an executive order.

These efforts add up to reforms instituted by the administration of ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman since he was appointed as caretaker governor in 2011, and later elected twice in 2013 and in 2016.

The regional government, he said, continues its efforts to further develop and improve ICT in the region. The ARMM held its 1st ICT Summit on December 5, to make the stakeholders knowledgeable of the latest trends and technology that could be used in the efficient delivery of government services.

Ang focus natin dito ay pag-improve at pagpapaganda ng serbisyo natin sa ARMM, particularly sa regional government (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).”

The summit invited five speakers who discussed topics relevant to governance in the regional government. The development and effective integration of technology to government services pave the way to better governance in the region, Campong added.

“Data management ang topics dahil iyon ang kailangan ng region (Data management are the topics because these are what our region needs); 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.