DICT chief says digitalization to accelerate PH’s economic recovery
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy said that the country needs a strive for integrated digitalization to achieve economic recovery and growth.
“We have a massive potential as a country to entice more foreign investors to do business in the Philippines. We have the ease of doing business, but on the ground, we need to have an infrastructure that would hasten the digitalization of both local and national government,” Uy said speaking at an event hosted by the European Chamber of Commerce.
The DICT chief acknowledged that digital infrastructure is an “urgent concern” that needs to be addressed under his leadership.
Noting the roadblocks faced by local government in sustaining a full digitalization program, Uy said, “We at the national government want to be aligned with the local government in terms of digitalization. The challenge in the local government is continuity,”
He said at the national level, it is their duty to ensure that digitalization is being implemented in an efficient manner.
“There should be seamless interfaces of transactions, and that would be very convenient to the public we serve and at the same time draw more foreign investors,” he said.
The DICT secretary also stressed the necessity of unified data in both national and local government units. Uy pointed out that there is a need for a centralized depository of data to ensure there is no disparity in the data of individuals. He noted that the data in possession of the national government oftentimes don’t have much with the ones in the local government.
