OPTIMISTIC with the growth of the information and communication technology (ICT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) industries, the government targets a revenue of $50 billion from them by 2016.
ICT Office Executive Director Luis Casambre, speaking during yesterday’s Cebu ICT and BPO Conference, believes that at the rate the industry is growing, the target can easily be achieved.
Casambre said that the industry contributed $10.9 billion in revenues to the gross national product last year, the second highest after the the remittances sent by overseas Filipino workers.
He said that a revenue of $50 billion will easily lead to an increase in employment opportunities.
A year after the ICTO became an attached agency of the Department of Science and Technology, Casambre assured that the agency has managed to proceed with their intended programs while facing the usual challenges that come with adjusting to a new office.
These include improving the ICT policy environment, expanding the E-government project, achieving Internet for all, having a Cyber Security Program and the continued development of the ICT and ICT-enabled industries.
Security
Following the defacement of some government websites, he said the Cyber Security Program is meant to make sure unauthorized access to government websites is prevented.
This, he said, goes hand-in-hand with the E-government program.
“We have taken steps to secure the key sites under the care of the DOST but this is really only the surface of the task at hand. In collaboration with other national government agencies, as well as our partners in the private sector, we are developing security policies and standards that are to be implemented across all government agencies,” he said.
He said that among the projects his office is working on are the development of a National Broadband Plan, a clear Philippine ICT R&D Roadmap, and other initiatives to achieve a progressive and fair telecommunication policy environment.
On the Internet for all program, Casambre said they a working to have the unused TV spectrum as a way to provide broadband access to areas that do not have access to the Internet.
“Last week, we launched the TV White Space Initiative to explore the utilization of unused TV spectrum to provide rural broadband access in turn making delivery of educational content and expertise, basic and specialized medical knowhow, and even e-commerce possible.”
The technology will also allow them to blanket the countryside with sensor networks that will feed among others the DOST’s National Operational Assessment of Hazards or NOAH project with data, allowing it to protect, communities and industries.
“TV White Space technology enables data communications over distances of up to 30 kilometers, over water, through thick vegetation as well as through concrete walls, making it an ideal, cost effective solution for the country,” he explained.
He added that they also have a target to become an ICT-enabled government by 2016. He believes this feasible and that this is what both business and the rest of the public deserves.
Landmark decade
Casambre noted that this decade is a “landmark” for the ICT industry, with investor confidence in the Philippines at an all-time high and the world seeing the country as a good investment location.
“Last year the country achieved a 15-year high having attracted more than 6 billion dollars in foreign direct investment. Rating companies have upgraded the country’s investment status and our stock market is abuzz with activity, bringing our stock index to all time highs,” Casambre said.
Casambre said many international entities have rosy forecasts for the Philippines.
He quoted Bloomberg’s economist Tamara Henderson as saying the country’s budget deficit shrunk from 3.7 percent of the GDP in 2009 to just one percent, at the same level as Germany’s, and better than India’s 7.3 percent.
He also cited Morgan Stanley investor Ruchir Sharma who said investments in Brazil, Russia, India and China is “passé” because it would be wiser to put money in Turkey, Indonesia and the Philippines while a report by HSBC predicting that the country will become the 16th largest economy in the world by the middle of the century: up 27
places from today.
For Casambre, ICT is at the forefront of these positive developments, which is led by the booming IT-BPO industry.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on June 27, 2012.
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