Commission on Information and Communications Technology

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About CICT

Mission
To develop the country as a world-class ICT services provider, provide government services to stakeholders online, provide affordable Internet access to all segments of the population, develop an ICT enabled workforce, and create an enabling legal and regulatory environment.

Vision
ePhilippines an electronically enabled society where the citizens live in an environment that wil encourage and promote the access to technologies providing quality education, efficient government service, greater sources of livelihoood, and, ultimately, a better way of life.

Mandate
The Commission shall be the primary policy, planning, coordinating, implementing, regulating, and administrative entity of the executive branch of Government that will promote, develop, and regulate integrated and strategic ICT systems and reliable and cost-efficient communication facilities and services. In fulfilling its mandate, the Commission shall be guided by the following policies:

To ensure the provision of strategic, reliable and cost-efficient information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure, systems and resources as instruments for nation-building and global competitiveness;

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is defined as the totality of electronic means to collect, store, process and present information to end-users in support of their activities. It consists, among others, of computer systems, office systems and consumer electronics, as well as networked information infrastructure, the components of which include the telephone system, the Internet, fax machines and computers.

To ensure a policy and legal environment that will promote a level playing field, partnerships between the public and the private sectors, strategic alliances with foreign investors, balanced investments between high-growth and economically-depressed areas, and broader private sector participation in ICT development;

To foster and accelerate convergence of ICT facilities such as but not limited to the development of networks;

To ensure universal access and high-speed connectivity at fair and reasonable cost;

To ensure the provision of information and communication services in areas not adequately served by the private sector;

To foster the widespread use and application of emerging ICT;

To establish a strong and effective regulatory system that will ensure consumer protection and welfare and foster a healthy competitive environment;

To promote the development of ICT expertise in the countrys human capital to enable Filipinos to compete in a fast-evolving information and communication age; To ensure the growth of the ICT industries;

To preserve the rights of individuals to privacy and confidentiality of their personal information;

To encourage the use of ICT in support of efforts for the development and promotion of the countrys arts and culture, history, education, public health and safety, and other socio-civic purposes;

To sustain the development of the nationwide postal system as an integral component of the overall development of ICT in the country.

History
In the year 2000, needing to streamline the different ICT-related government agencies to provide effective and focused leadership in the implementation of ICT policy, then-President Joseph Ejercito Estrada signed Executive Order No. 264 merging the National Information Technology Council (NITC) and the Electronic Commerce Promotion Council (ECPC) to form ITECC.

When President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over in January of 2001, she transferred the chairmanship of ITECC to the President of the Republic of the Philippines by signing EO 18, amending EO 264. This move allowed her to oversee the direction of ITECC and ICT development in the country. It also expanded, enhanced, and accelerated ITECC's policy-implementation capabilities and decision-making processes. With this transfer, the ICT industry has been given a champion, someone who is in a position to effect real changes in the industry and the country by putting ICT in the forefront of government priorities and national consciousness like it never has been before.

One of the pressing recommendations of the Council was for the immediate creation of a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). As envisioned, it will effectively coordinate and implement national ICT programs, projects and other related initiatives as a priority of government. Consequently, it was endorsed by ITECC, supported by the private sector and presently under consideration in Congress.

However, in view of other businesses that has to be managed by Congress that prevented the early passage of the DICT bill, coupled by the ITECC recommendation of creating a national body, headed by a Cabinet ranked official, that must be equipped with strong and clearly defined powers, appropriate manpower and resources, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology was created under Executive Order 269 dated January 12, 2004. As a transitory measure, the CICT was not merely advisory in nature, but will have a more active role in streamlining, managing, coordinating, and implementing the various ICT-related plans and policies of government, and will immediately address the urgent need to harmonize and make the country's approach to ICT development more coherent and efficient.