The Daily Tribune <<< Without Fear or Favor >>>

»HEADLINES

»NATION

Mayors are invited to enlist at BayanNatin.net

Web site brings visibility to every town, city in RP

02/22/2009

With just a click, every town and city in the Philippines is “closer” to the world. This is courtesy of BayanNatin portal which was created by Remitcard Inc. Now, all of the 1,600 plus towns and cities in the country are in cyberspace.

Each and every town and city is represented with their own pages for local executives, programs and projects. The Web site also contains a general background of the place and links related to the tourism ventures in the area.

Each Web site for each town provides an excellent venue for overseas Filipino workers, who have access to the Web, to know what is going on in their hometown. They can even check out what the locals there have to offer in terms of services, employment, business venture proposals as well as information on foundations such as those which provide for children’s education.

“The BayanNatin.net portal was created in order for local government, as well as ordinary citizens, especially the entrepreneurs, to present themselves and their services to millions of Filipinos as well as foreigners who access the Internet on a daily basis,” Philip Camara, president of Remitcard Inc., said.

Another “first-of-its-kind” feature of BayanNatin.net is the facility for locals to have their cellphone number listed. This is categorized by services or products they would like to offer. This creates a cyberspace telephone directory, which when filled, can act as an important tool to facilitate local commercial, economic as well as personal transactions.

Each town also has its own “Classified Ads” section so that those who want to sell or dispose items like vehicles, furnishings, jewelry, appliances, among others can post it.

BayanNatin.net also features a “Business Opportunities” section for each town so that those who have idle business assets may post these in case someone with know-how and capital would be interested to team up.

To promote government-private sector dialogue, each town’s Web site also has a “Citizen’s Forum” where issues of the town can be posted and discussed.

All of these features are free of use to the general public of each town.

BayanNatin, however, charges a minimal fee of P15,000 per year from the local government to secure their own password access code that allows them to fill-in the details on their officers, programs and projects and current events. With the password, the local government can become the moderator of their town’s Web site or they could continue to rely on RemitCard Inc. to provide this service as part of the package fee.

“In this way, each town does not have to go trough the tedious process of creating and maintaining their own websites. If a town or city wanted to have their own web address with the same content or customized for them, RemitCard offers a package rate for this as well,” Camara said.

In order to facilitate the entry of local people’s contact details, RemitCard uses this cellphone number (0918-9138154) where anyone giving their name, town, province and listing category will get posted for free with the cellphone number used to send the text as their contact number (unless they specify a different one). This is to ensure that even those without computers or Internet service can benefit as well.

“We invite all mayors, and LGUs who want to open their towns and cities to tourists and entrepreneurs to join BayanNatin.net. The benefits will go a long way in boosting your local economy, adding tourism arrivals, and generating employment,” he added.

For more information on BayanNatin.net, call 899-5544/ (0917) 813-5508, e-mail: info@bayannatin.net or visit the office at Unit 206, Raman Condominium, 1130 Chino Roces Avenue, Makati City. Visit http://bayannatin.net.