Imagine these scenarios:  A civil servant who is about to retire accesses his file in the computer and downloads a complete record of his whole tenure in government.  A Human Resource Officer accesses the database of its agency and generates the manpower inventory report with just a click of a mouse. An  agency  responds within minutes to the request of another agency for a statistical report of its human resources.

Information and communications technology (ICT) makes these situations possible specially when the Civil Service Commission's (CSC) Personnel Information Database System (PIDS) advances into its final stage of development.

Over the years, we have seen a lot of significant changes in how governments provide services to their people. We have seen how these governments, all over the world, have used information and communications technologies (ICTs) to provide faster, convenient and efficient services.

In the Philippines, the passage of the Electronic Commerce Act paved the way to the creation of the Electronic Government Fund. The e-Gov Fund was established to finance government computerization programs, one of which is the Overseas Filipino Workers' (OFWs) e-Link Project with the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) taking the lead.