Camacho is bullish on IT too

Accelerate the growth momentum of the Philippine information technology (IT) industry, double or triple your membership by next year, become the dynamic advocate of IT, help realize the vast potentials of IT as the sunrise industry of the Philippines, help the government find innovative ways of financing for increased IT investments.

These were the rousing remarks of the normally soft-spoken Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho at the June 3 induction of the new officers of the Information Technology Association of the Philippines (ITAF).

ITAP was established in December 1984 and now counts numerous Filipino and foreign companies as members, including the Philippine operations of the world’s IT giants Oracle, Unisys, IBM, Cisco, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Fujitsu and EMC.

According to ITAP president Bernard Yu of Oracle, the group seeks to unify the splintered IT industry, hoping that others can hear Camacho’s challenge to unite and expand the industry.

During the ITAP induction, Camacho spent 10 minutes giving his "unsolicited advices" to the group in the most candid and eloquent manner. Saying that the whole country looks up to IT as the "key driver for economic growth," he challenged the newly elected ITAP leaders to enlist more members "so that next year you will be meeting in a much bigger hall and there will be more upbeat rah-rah mood here."

"IT is a fast-growth sector, but if your group looks like this after one month, then something is wrong with Philippine IT. We should all work harder and push the rapid growth of IT," he said.

Camacho also dared ITAP to become more active in advocating for reforms in the government’s IT policies. He joked that instead of discussing its next basketball tournament, socials or civic projects, ITAP should expand its membership and help push for faster IT growth. "I hope you don’t mind these...unsolicited advices...My intention is to encourage because I care very much for the future of IT in our country and you can do so much," he said.

IT-savvy President

Camacho confessed to the ITAP officers that unlike his boss, President Arroyo who he described as "IT-savvy," he is "IT-illiterate." He said he can only send and receive e-mails and search the Web occasionally, but he does not know much else about IT. He said he belongs to that generation who "missed the boat," and that when he was studying at Harvard, the calculator was a big and cumbersome gadget.

He nevertheless pledged his wholehearted and strong support for IT. He said, "Fortunately for the country, the President is very IT-savvy. During Cabinet meetings, she keeps going to her laptop computer to check facts, and during plane trips, I always see her working on her laptop. She has also expressed the government’s support for IT. All these are strong signals that the government is IT-driven, that IT is one of the most exciting industries. We in the government is probably your biggest client in IT, and we will continue to be your biggest client."

Peruvian executive Gabriel Leiva, president of Unisys Phils. and an ITAP member, asked Camacho in the open forum what he thinks is the impact of IT on the Philippine economy. Camacho replied: "I think that in developing countries like the Philippines, the positive impact of IT is even much greater. In advanced economies like those of the United States, IT can add only incremental improvements in efficiency, but in developing economies like that of the Philippines, the positive impact of IT in efficiency and progress will be dramatic improvements, revolutionary improvements."

For example, Camacho noted that in the Bureau of Internal Revenue or Bureau of Customs, "there are probably hundreds of people keeping and sorting out files, when IT could have made all this work faster and our personnel could focus on more important matters. We need to accelerate IT growth in the Philippines."

For his part, Yu asked about government expenditures for IT. Camacho said: "The government has budgetary constraints, we don’t have much extra funds, but should find new creative ways to raise funding. Let your bankers work, let them think. What we can do in government is to realign our expenses, to increase IT spending due to its importance…The government’s total budget is P750 billion, and 26 percent of that goes to debt servicing or interest payments. Most of the other expenditures go to salaries and other basic expenses. BOT (build-operate-transfer) is only one of the ways of outsourcing and raising funds. Get your bankers to work, to think of creative ways for financing."

Improving infra

Camacho urged local and multinational IT firms to invest more in the Philippine economic recovery. He reported that the Philippine economy registered growth of 4.9 percent, the inflation rate eased to an average 3.6 percent, the peso exchange rate stabilized, the Balance of Payments (BOP) registered surplus of $654 million, and the Philippines achieved a large trade surplus exceeding $1 billion, all during the first quarter of 2002.

To provide better financial and economic infrastructure for the growth of Philippine IT, Camacho outlined some immediate steps now being undertaken by the government:

• Further strengthening of the country’s macro fundamentals by ensuring adherence to fiscal deficit targets. Reforms are being done in tax administration and procurement procedures.

• The enactment of the E-Commerce Law which, among others, will enhance transparency in all government transactions.

• Enhancing linkages among government offices to ensure swift, efficient and effective exchange of information necessary for policy formulation.

• Using IT as an enabling technology to upgrade services being provided to the people.

In his speech, Camacho reminded the ITAP leaders: "We have identified drivers of growth to ensure a sturdy economic house and not one built on sand and empty promises. (One of) them is Information and Communications Technology (which will) play a key role in the country’s development. The Philippine has a two-fold advantage over other Asian competitors in this area, namely, a skilled, easily trainable, educated and English-proficient workforce and a growing spirit of entrepreneurship in the information technology field…I urge you to examine the areas in the economy where we are most competitive and then ensure that your resources are directed toward these areas. We should take full advantage of the investment opportunities available to us so that when the world economy fully recovers, we are ahead of our competitors by a comfortable margin."