CV businesses post high web presence

CEBU, Philippines - The 2010 Survey on Information and Communication Technology (SICT) of the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed that establishments in Central Visayas had a higher website presence and e-commerce transactions via Internet and other networks compared to the national figure.

The 2010 SICT is the fourth in the series of rider-surveys to the 2010 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry.

The survey covers the scope of core ICT industries which are classified into the ICT sector and the content and media sector.

The ICT sector comprises of ICT manufacturing industries, ICT trade industries and ICT service industries that specifically refer to software publishing, telecommunication services, computer programming, consultancy and related activities, data processing and hosting and repair of computers and communication equipment.

Leopoldo Alfanta, OIC-Provincial Statistics Officer of NSO-Siquijor, said that Central Visayas has 140 establishments categorized as Core ICT industries that employed about 34,111 people.

Employees in the 2010 Philippine information economy recorded an estimate of 259 741 workers of which 92.1% belonged to the ICT sector while 7.9% to the content and media sector.

Central Visayas was reported to have a higher proportion of establishments with websites than the national figure at 46.4%.

It also had a higher rate at 35% in terms of the proportion of establishments with e-commerce transactions via Internet and other networks compared to the 30.7% recorded for the entire country.

In Region VII, however, only about 88.6% of the establishments had Internet connections.

The proportion of establishments in the information economy using computer and other hardware in the National Capital Region is higher at 98.5% compared to Central Visayas at 97.1%.

Workers who routinely use computers at work in the region were recorded at 34.7% while those who use computers with Internet often were at 22.5%.

Establishments access Internet primarily to obtain information from government agencies which was recorded the highest at 78% while staff training purposes ranked the lowest at 20.3%.

Other reasons for Internet usage include online payments to government, finance, accounting, auditing, recruitment of staff, share and obtain information with other organizations and within the company, complete and send forms online, and download government forms.

The 2010 SICT aims to collect and generate information on the availability, distribution, access and utilization of ICT among establishments in the country.

It had a sampling size of 8 557 establishments from core and non-core ICT sectors and had an overall response rate at 92.3%. (FREEMAN)