There's room for IT in government amid crisis

Education, health, environment and infrastructure are areas where governments in the Asia-Pacific region would mostly focus their attention and budgets on as they cope with the present global economic storm. Somewhere in the projects that would come from these areas are IT-related ones that would be incorporated as an element of new vital government initiatives.

This, in a nutshell, is the prospect awaiting IT and CIOs in government that market researcher IDC deduced from its latest Government Insights study, Economic Stimulus and Expansionary Budgets: Tabulating the Government’s Response to the Economic Downturn in Asia-Pacific.

IDC said there are $767 billion worth of initiatives that have been unveiled by governments in the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) or APEJ between August 2008 and April 2009.

The initiatives range from economic stimulus packages and expansionary budgets to the advancement of planned spending and projects.

Gerald Wang, market analyst for IDC Government Insights Asia-Pacific, said, “Most new government budgets do not single out IT spending but incorporates it as an element of a new and urgent government initiative. Despite this, it is still welcoming news for both government technology officers and information technology vendors.”

Based on the initiatives announced by governments across the APEJ region, IDC Government Insights analysts have identified the following key areas of investments, the implications of these priorities on ICT spending, as well as potential opportunities for businesses. These investments will begin in late 2009 and continue through 2014.

Infrastructure projects

Infrastructure projects not only help immediately create jobs but also boost citizen services, as they provide an opportunity for government agencies to address aging issues and problems with congested transportation systems, or upgrade healthcare and educational facilities for the benefit of their citizens.

The spike in infrastructure projects would likely boost ICT investments in areas such as remote monitoring for building maintenance, automated adherence to stricter safety standards and environmental compliance such as monitoring technologies for industry emissions.

Future schools

Future schools, which leverage on innovative technologies and business models to reach their target groups, will emerge as a key investment for governments. Among others, future schools address the objective of governments to create jobs through upgrades in educational infrastructure.

An example of public sector ICT spending that will likely arise from the emergence of future schools is the upgrade of existing ICT infrastructure in educational institutions across all levels.

Healthcare reforms

Healthcare is a key investment area for governments as it is related to job creation, skills development, citizen-services enhancement, and digital inclusion.

Healthcare investments provide a clear boost to public sector ICT investments. For example, to accelerate the move toward patients’ digital information, investments will have to be made in the existing ICT infrastructure of hospitals.

Green technologies

The current financial crisis provides a window of opportunity to restart the economic engine with a focus on long-term solutions that are economically, socially and ecologically sustainable.

In this context, national stimulus packages, to varying degrees, are seeking to not only revive but also green their national economies.

Furthermore, green technologies also help government agencies meet cost-cutting and budget optimization goals through a focus on energy efficiency.

Investments to strengthen green infrastructure across the APEJ have clear implications for technology spending in areas such as intelligent grid technologies, energy efficiency technologies, environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) that generate low or zero waste, etc.

The IDC Government Insights study features a specific country-by-country analysis of the budget stimulus initiatives across 13 APEJ economies. It serves as a guide to public sector CIOs seeking to optimize technology selection and implementation strategies.

In addition, it also provides guidance to IT vendors on how to best engage the public sector and plan the best business strategies to pursue new revenues from the opportunities generated by economic stimulus initiatives.

Medical hub strategies drawn up

Good news for this sunrise industry! The government targets two million foreign patients and annual medical receipts of $2.3 billion from abroad by 2010.

To achieve the target the government has drawn up six strategies to promote the country as a medical-service hub to the international community.

The policy was introduced already in 2004 to promote modern health care services through private hospitals and traditional services such as spas. The number of foreign patients increased from 630,000 in 2004 to 1.5 million in 2007. Revenue from this segment also grew, from $0.5 billion in 2004 to $1.2 billion in 2007.

To reach the goal of two million international patients by 2010, six strategies have been drawn up to further drive the medical-hub policy:

First, quality and diversity of health care services will be further improved to meet global standards. Certificates from international accreditation institutions are required, while technology must be developed to address chronic diseases.

Second, infrastructure has to be improved to support the service speed as well as access to health care services. One-stop service centers will be introduced to provide a fast track to issue the visa and reserve the accommodation for foreign patients and their relatives to enter the country and develop the reimbursement systems with the health insurance agencies of their original countries. This will help them reduce their financial burden while they are staying in the country.

The third strategy will focus on a proactive public relations and marketing plan to promote the country as a brand in the healthcare industry to make the country recognized in the international community. As part of this strategy, international medical conferences will be organized, which will open up the opportunity for local researchers to show medical research to international scientists.

The fourth strategy is a plan to share staff among public and private hospitals, particularly highly skilled physicians and service and hospitality experts. This strategy is aimed at strengthening the range of healthcare services between the public and private sectors.

As the fifth strategy, health staff will be increased and the capacity of medical workers be improved by supporting them with training through international programs, including undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

The final strategy will seek collaboration with agencies to manage all strategies to improve the country’s capacity for health tourism.

The Philippines?

No — Thailand.

Let’s see this as a wake-up call to get united and move this sunrise industry forward. The Thailand strategy makes sense; more government support needs to be provided so that the Philippines can become a recognized player in this game, also played by India, Singapore and Malaysia. But the private sector has to get its act together too.

The European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) has been working on retirement and health care as a sub-sector of tourism for a number of years.

While some progress has been made, the Philippines still does not have an integrated retirement village that can be presented to potential retirees. There are plans, from Tagaytay to Cebu, but so far they remain plans.

The Philippine Retirement Authority should provide seed capital for a retirement village jointly with the private sector.

This seems to be a better idea than sending its profits into government coffers.

As retirement has two main components: lifestyle and health care, we have now added medical services and medical travel to our program.

Promoting the Philippines as medical hub is almost impossible: the Philippine hospitals have hundreds of doctors with different fees for the same procedure. How can we compare the Philippines with the competitors?

Quality standards also have to be reviewed: some target markets are more familiar with ISO than with JCI. We feel that more partnerships between leading hospitals in the Philippines with leading hospitals in target markets need to be developed.

This will help in answering the recurring question: Why the Philippines?

ECCP has started discussions with some hospitals in Manila and Cebu to prepare for the promotion of this industry abroad, to provide better services for our long-stay visitors and for the retirees that we are attracting.

The partnerships between leading hospitals, universities and insurance companies will also have a positive effect on the Philippines’ information technology industry.

The convergence of biology and engineering is turning health care into an IT industry, which in medicine means the digitization of medical records and the establishment of digital networks for sharing those records.

I find it careless that we travel internationally (and locally) without carrying a chip with our health records. If we have an accident, how will doctors find the right lifesaving solution if they don’t have access to our records?

Back to Thailand: in the absence of suitable software offerings from software vendors, Bumrungrad, the benchmark hospital for medical travel in Bangkok, has built its hospital-management system from scratch. When Microsoft decided to enter this industry, it was so impressed that it bought Bumrungrad’s software division outright.

If health providers were to switch to electronic health records, integrated into a "smart grid" of information technology, the future of medicine could look a lot brighter.

The RAND Corporation, an American think tank, examined the potential benefits of digitizing health systems in a 2005 report. It estimated that, if 90% of hospitals and doctors in America were to adopt health information technology over 15 years, the health system could save some $77 billion a year from efficiency gains.

Plenty opportunities; plenty to do. Let’s move.