Keynote Address Louis Napoleon C. Casambre Executive Director, Department of Science and Technology- Information and Communications Technology Office Cebu ICT Summit Cebu City 27 June 2012 On behalf of the Department of Science and Technology- through the Information and Communications Technology Office (DOST-ICTO), I would like to extend my congratulations to the organizer of this event- the CEDF-IT. This event is again will showcase what the Philippines has to offer in the national and international market for the IT sector. The government foresees a sustainable IT industry for the year 2016. One of the primary roles of the government is to be a catalyst and a creator of opportunities for the industry. And we can achieve this through linkages on both the national and international networks. The Department of Science and Technology through the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) have come up with programs to make these opportunities into a reality. And with the help of these programs the country is hoping to hit the CAGR of 25 percent or 26.9 Billion USD revenue in the year 2016. This increase in revenue also means an increase in the employment opportunities for the Filipino. The ICTO has five major programs, namely: ICT Policy Environment, e-Government, Internet for all, Cybersecurity and ICT Industry Development. These programs are designed to ensure the on-time pursuit of the development and betterment of the IT sector. The ICT Policy Environment ensures the strategic application of ICT in government. Furthermore, these are governed with the goal of institutionalizing key principles such as data code sovereignty, interoperability, and efficient use of resources, accountability, and security. The government is in the hope of achieving a national broadband plan, a clear Philippine IC&T Roadmap, and Fair and Progressive Telecommunication Policy environment through this program.
E-Government on the other hand targets a highly technology-based government in 2016. This program projects a better government that will ensure the better processing of government transactions such as, Government Information System Plan, Gov't Integrated Financial Management Information System, National Payroll System and Common ICT Services Platform for Government, and eBPLS (Business Permits & Licenses Service). In addition, the eGovernment program aims to improve the lives of the country’s citizenry by creating e-services such as Single Portal for Citizen Services, Call Center Ng Bayan, and Community eCenter expansion.
The Internet for All program guarantees an adequate bandwidth for the entire nation. This program focuses on providing ICT access to untapped areas in the country. The government is starting to bridge the gap between ICT rich and ICT poor and this goal is slowly becoming a reality through the Internet for All Program. To combat the proliferation of cyber crimes in the country, the ICTO had implemented a Cyber Security program that will assist the whole IT industry in the country by creating policies that are focused on suppressing internet crimes. The group will also provide assistance in issuance of appropriate policies that the IT industry will need. The ICT Industry Development Program ensures the sustainable development and increase the competitiveness of the industry specifically the IT-BPO sector. There are 6 sub programs under this umbrella. These programs are responsible for creating a competitive workforce pool for the IT-BPO sector, harness competitive advantages in leadership in fast growing segments, develop countryside through ICT and Science and Technology, develop the entire ICT Industry for national development, and expand geographic board through marketing and research. The ICT Development Program together with its targets is designed to produce 50 Billion USD in direct revenues by the year 2016. In fact in 2011, the group has been able to identify key cities that were able to contribute in the 11 Billion USD revenue for the IT-BPO industry in the country and it was able to produce 638, 000 employment opportunities for the entire nation. Governed by the
concept of the “perfect storm,� the group aims to achieve these numbers through the following programs: The ICT Talent Development Program aims to produce competitive workforce for the IT-BPO sector. In order to achieve this, the program has designed assessment tests and certifications that will ensure the employability of the Filipino Talents. The Stepping- Up the Value Chain of the ICT Development Program, targets the Philippines to be the leading in the Voice BPO for the next five years. Furthermore, this program is focused on the creation of additional areas for future employment opportunities for Filipinos. The program aims to contribute at least 20 percent in the growth of the IT-BPO revenue. The Domestic ICT Program boasts on the creation of an industry map that will accelerate development of entire ICT Industry. This will increase investments, export revenues and job creation for the Philippines. The areas of focus of this map are broadcasting, telecommunications, broadcasting, IT services, software and applications, semiconductors, and electronics. The ICT Enabled Creative Program aims to promote development of original creative content, opening the Philippine Creative Economy to a bigger and more lucrative global creative market. The group sees a great potential for the creative arts industry. In fact, with this industry alone the country can create 1.8 trillion USD for this industry. The ICT Market -Research Program is tasked to develop and implement a comprehensive marketing strategy to promote the industry to its target audience. Furthermore, it is the mandate of this program to pursue research activities shall focus on emerging trends and technologies, and market intelligence. The Next Wave Cities Program components include, research, capability building workshop, marketing, and talent development. The Next Wave Cities program of the ICT Development Program is a true testament that the increase in the development of potential technology hubs can
create jobs for the IT-BPO sector closer to each of the Filipino homes. In 2011, the NWC Program has been able to identify 10 key cities that can be at par in Metro Manila, Cebu, and Clark as ICT Centers of Technology in terms of providing IT-BPO services in the future. In the same year these key cities were able to produce 200,000 jobs for the Filipino graduates. Hence, it can be truly said that Filipinos are breaking the barrier of migrating to other countries for better employment opportunities. In the next five years the NWC program are aiming to create 350,000 jobs from these cities alone. The NWC program hopes to achieve the creation of identifying five more additional cities that can cater to the need of the fast growing IT-BPO sector in the country. Furthermore, the program continuously provide support to the NICP and various ICT Councils in equipping and preparing them to the needed support of the IT-BPO sector through various training and marketing activities under the Next Wave Cities. With the creation of these programs, the government is hoping to address the challenges that the past years that the IT industry has faced. This is also done to ensure that we are able to target our goals in creating a more established and secured IT industry of the country. In achieving these goals, the government will continually practice transparency in the service of the Filipino people and our partners We in the government are hoping for the continued support and partnership with you to achieve our goal and that is to be the leading IT Services provider in the world. We also encouraged all our partners to continually create, develop and implement technologies that will help boost our economy. Again, I congratulate the CEDF- IT for organizing this annual event. We look forward to continue working with you in the coming years. This is just the beginning of a greater future for the IT industry in the Philippines as we in the government continuously improves policies, programs, and infrastructure to serve better the IT sector. We hope that with your support we will be able to target the creation of 1.4 billion jobs for the Filipinos in the next five years. Maraming salamat at Mabuhay!