Melissa V. Patricio

While access and security concerns continue to prevent electronic banking from fully taking off in the Philippines, a top executive of the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) noted that the value and volume of e-banking transactions have grown steadily over the past three years.

Despite the concerted efforts of several government agencies to curb the use of illegal software, the Philippines remains in the list of nations with the highest software piracy rates in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has allotted one billion pesos (US$17.8 million) for the deployment of e-government projects in 2005, an amount that the DBM is willing to further increase provided that the concerned implementing agencies can prove they can fully use the money, said Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) chairman Virgilio Pe

Although several legislations seeking to protect thousands of American jobs from going offshore are being proposed in the U.S. Congress, industry experts and outsourcing advocates in the Philippines remain confident that the country will continue to reap good business from the outsourcing market.

The growth of electronic commerce in the country continues to be hampered by the high cost of Internet rates and the lack of access to computers. This adverse situation, however, has paved the way for the continued advancement of mobile commerce (m-commerce) due to the popularity and affordability of cellular phones.

Internet service providers (ISPs) are not giving up on voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP). Despite the insistence by telecommunications companies that VoIP services should be considered as normal voice calls and thus, could be offered only by public telephone exchange (PTE) providers, the majority of local ISPs are still confident they can defend their claim to this technology.

Despite China's sizeable workforce and low labour cost, local experts believe it will take a long time for the country to catch up with the Philippines as a choice destination for business process outsourcing (BPO) services.

Tapping the technology services of AyalaPort Makati Inc. (APMI), the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is preparing the implementation of the Electronic Filing and Payment System (eFPS) that will allow the country's taxpayers to file and pay their taxes through electronic means such as the Internet.