The provincial government of Davao del Norte
(DavNor), in collaboration with Globe Telecom and its subsidiary G-Xchange,
Inc. (GCash), launched recently the Alternative Government Revenue Collection
and Disbursement and Citizen ID system for all provincial residents and
employees.
The announcement was one of the highlights of
the 50th founding anniversary of DavNor which was graced by President Rodrigo
R. Duterte.
The partnership seeks to enhance access to
financial and social services of DavNor residents and employees, and is part of
the overall plan to increase the province’s global competitiveness through
information and communications technology (ICT) and financial technology.
“As we aim to gain vantage position in
today’s increasingly globalizing world, we are highly upbeat about the golden
opportunities brought by the President’s Build Build Build Program. In return, we shall match this massive
infrastructure development with no-nonsense projects that aim to ensure the
continued relevance and growth of the Province,” said Davao del Norte Governor
Antonio Rafael del Rosario.
Del Rosaria said the whole setup includes the
Mynt’s cashless ecosystem for government transactions and citizen ID system.
“This innovation shall enhance our
clientele-focused mindset cutting down on costs and speeding up our processes
to better serve our citizens in an efficient and responsive manner,” he added.
“Globe has been harnessing the power of new
digital opportunities that will hopefully enable growth in every city and make
the Philippines a truly digital nation. We share in the vision of the Davao del
Norte provincial government to make the province a truly connected one and
enable the delivery of services to the people to become more efficient and
cost-effective,” said John Rubio, President of Mynt which operates GCash, a
mobile micro-payment service that transforms a mobile phone into a virtual
wallet for secure, fast and convenient money transfers.
More than 300,000 residents of Tagum City and
the municipality of Carmen are projected to benefit under the project.
Initially, around 18,000 employees from the
two areas will serve as pilot beneficiaries of the DavNor-GCash co-branded Citizen
IDs by September this year. The Citizen
ID card functions as a valid government-issued ID card and can be used to avail
various social services, transact with government and purchase goods and
services.
The project will help promote a cashless ecosystem
both in business and in government. There are 65 merchants and local government
facilities in DavNor which can now accept GCash e-payments using their DavNor
GCash accounts. Thus, residents can now
pay their local taxes such as business permits, local property tax and other
mandated fees through GCash Local
Government Mobile Services.
On the other hand, the GCash PowerPay+
platform allows monetary benefits such as payroll and salaries which are
accorded to government employeesas well as financial assistance for senior
citizens and students to be credited to their GCash wallets directly and in
real-time. This helps improve operational efficiency in government by tracking
cash flow and offering lesser risks in the handling of cash for beneficiaries.
To help spur an entrepreneurial mindset among
residents and fuel economic growth, Mynt also offers “Fuse Business Loans,” said
to be quick, easy and non-collateralized loans minus the usurious rates offered
by informal lending networks. At present, around 25 micro, small, and
medium-size enterprises in the province have already been approved for loans
amounting to as high as P1 million.
Meanwhile, Globe provides connectivity
through direct Internet and public wi-fi access in select locations. A Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
protocol allows agencies to connect to select remote agencies such as hospitals
and rural health units while Enterprise Content Management enables real-time
data capture, data management, data analytics and reporting tools, dashboarding
capabilities for cloud for better archiving and data/document management. All
these can provide DavNor with better and highly-efficient governance and
service delivery to constituents.
Globe has been ramping up network investments
in a bid to amplify benefits of its new spectrum assets and enhance mobile
services particularly for data. It is
also aggressively building on its fiber broadband services with the aim of
deploying fiber optics in 20,000 barangays by 2020 for ultra-fast internet
access to around two million homes nationwide.
The province of Davao del Norte has been
ranked #15 among the 68 most competitive provinces in the country. It is
composed of 3 composite cities and 8 municipalities with 223 barangays all in
all. Around 1.07 million people reside in the province, with 259,444 people in
23 barangays living in Tagum City, the province’s capital.
Comments
Post a Comment