SINGAPORE -- Members of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) have met with representatives of Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) as part of its ongoing research on best practices in running a government agency devoted to information and communications technology.

BPAP is an umbrella organization representing the outsourcing industry in the Philippines. IDA, on the other hand, is the Singapore government's agency overseeing development and championing of the ICT industry.

Catherine Ileto, chairman of the government power committee in BPAP, said the group is part of a Senate technical working group tasked to provide inputs to a bill that seeks to create the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

"We met with IDA to learn how they operate," said Ileto, who is also acting as the industry's link to government and lawmakers.

She said various stakeholders in the local ICT industry want to look at "best practices in the centers of excellence." Singapore is among the countries now being studied, she added.

The IDA also acts as the government chief information officer of Singapore, which helps other agencies use ICT for making operations efficient and modern. It is also involved in planning for large ICT projects in Singapore, including a recent S$20 million (Singapore dollars) program to provide "security" for its next-generation government services.

Singapore, through IDA, has a major project to connect 90 percent of households to a broadband Internet service by 2015.

Ileto said IDA is a well-funded agency that provides incentives to private companies, and even take the lead in major government and non-government initiatives.

IDA is also involved in research and development, she added.

Ileto said that IDA also deploys an information officer in every agency to ensure IDA knows what is happening within these agencies. The BPAP executive said this is similar to how the country's Commission on Audit deploys its own people in government to ensure government spends public funds properly.

The Senate technical working group on the proposed DICT is scheduled to meet to gather more inputs from various stakeholders, Commission on Information and Communications Technology chairman Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III said earlier.

BPAP is among the industry organizations that are part of the Philippine pavilion exhibition here at CommunicAsia 2008 in Singapore Expo.