IBM assures poll results will not affect proposals

CEBU, Philippines - IBM Philippines expressed no apprehensions over the possible changes of leadership in most local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines after the May 2013 elections, saying its proposals do not largely depend on political personalities.

IBM Philippines president and country manager Mariels Almeda-Winhoffer said the election results should not give any negative impact to the existing partnership and project proposals of the company to LGUs such as Cebu City.

IBM has currently an existing partnership with the Metro Cebu Development Coordination Board (MCDCB) through its Smart City campaign and is submitting proposal to the Cebu City local government for the implementation of the project.

According to Winhoffer, while the company has already inked official partnership with Davao City, “Cebu is not far behind.”

Winhoffer reiterated her belief that whoever leads Cebu may not affect their pending proposal to implement a smarter city campaign.

While this project is not political in nature, it is helping Cebu to become a true, world-class city in 30 years, benchmarking the successful mega regions in Canada, like Vancouver, which applied also similar concept.

Likewise, MCDCB board member Gordon Alan “Dondi” Joseph believes that political leadership change will not affect the positive results of the proposal. “Politics may change, but business stays the same,” he said.

IBM’s Smart City initiative treats the city as an ecosystem composed of multiple subsystems to manage transportation, healthcare, public safety, government services, energy, commerce, communications, and water resources.

The project is expected to make Metro Cebu as one of the most livable cities in the world in the long run.

A Smart City enables information sharing and collaboration among different municipal governmental agencies and systems so that resources are used rationally, decisions that best benefit city development and management are made, and emergencies and disasters are predicted and dealt with in the shortest possible time.

From 1995 to 2010, the population in Metro Cebu grew by 50 percent from a total of 1.63 million to 2.5 million.

Based on the current growth rate, population count is seen to hit 4.27 million by 2030.

With the absence of good collaborative masterplanning, Cebu has not been able to keep up with its growth over the years but MCDCB is moving forward to take good care of Cebu’s potentials for growth, Joseph said. /JMD (FREEMAN)