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By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net
Posted date: June 30, 2008
MANILA, Philippines--Davao City is considering the conversion of all of its business permit and license application forms into electronic Portable Document Format (PDF) files, an initiative that could help save the city at least P1.4 million every year, according to the project's proponent.
Ted Padova, chief executive of Davao City-based Apo Visions Inc., said his company has a pending proposal before the city's information and communications technology council.
The proposed system makes available all permit and licensing application and renewal forms as PDF files that can be downloaded and viewed by Davao residents using the free Adobe Acrobat reader software.
"This will save the city P1.4 million in printing forms alone for around 35,000 business owners every year," Padova said in an interview with INQUIRER.net.
Padova delivered a presentation during last Friday's National ICT month celebration at the Commission on Information And Communications Technology (CICT) headquarters on the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines.
The project's proposed budget is P22 million, one fourth of which will be spent on hardware (including a server for the scanned and digitized forms) and the rest for assisting and training government workers on how to use the system, Padova said.
By converting forms into PDF files, businesses especially "sari-sari" (small mom-and-pop grocery) stores in far-flung areas can save time and money by downloading the forms, filling them up and then sending them back online.
"This would address bottlenecks in the city offices especially during January when workers sometimes need to stay past midnight because of the huge volume of applications," Padova said.
Internet cafes would be employed to make forms available for Davao residents that do not have their own connections to the Internet, he added.
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