ECCP: Phl ICT infra lags behind Asian neighbors

CEBU, Philippines - The Philippines needs to address the lingering issues hampering the growth of the Information, Communication and Technology and the outsourcing sector to compete effectively within the ASEAN.

European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines  vice president for external affairs Henry Schumacher reiterated his call to the Philippine government to "fix" the ICT infrastructure in the country, saying the Philippines is lagging behind other ASEAN countries in terms of network readiness.

Based on 2012 ratings, the Philippines is on the tail-end in terms of network readiness lagging behind Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, and Malaysia. Singapore leads in the network readiness index among ASEAN countries, while Cambodia is at the bottom.

Despite ongoing debates whether to install a departmental office for ICT or not, Schumacher believes that ICT, outsourcing, knowledge process management, business process management and the creative sector are too big to lose, and that it is still desirable for the country to put up a dedicated office to oversee the tremendously growing sector, with expanding sub-sectors.

The Data Privacy Act in the country needs to be implemented as well as the Cybercrime Prevention Act.

To provide a world at par network/communication/technology  infrastructure Schumacher stressed that "having only two telcos needs to be watched by the governing body  for competition. The acquisition of Sun by PLDT should not have been allowed."

The quality of bandwidth in the Philippines needs to be increased, as this is the primary requirement for outsourcing investments.

Significantly, he recommended that educational system should also be reformulated towards embracing this fast evolving and rich sector.

Last month, the Department of Budget and Management announced the release of P878.5 million to the DOST-ICTO to support the second phase of iGovPhil project.

The iGovPhil is one of the vital parts in the e-Government Master Plan of 2013-2016, which aims to maximize the use of ICT resources through shared ICT infrastructure, services, and applications for national government agencies.

iGovPhil has a total project cost of P2.53 billion implemented from 2012 to 2016. DBM has previously released P164.6 million to ICTO in 2012 for the first phase of the project.

The latest P878.5 million funding--charged against the FY 2014 E-Government Fund--will cover funding requirements of the second phase project.

At present, the Business Process Outsourcing sub-sector of the ICT  or the Information Technology Communication-Business Process Management industry is generating over 900 thousand direct workers, with revenue of $15.5 billion.

The Philippine government is hitting to reach over a million direct employees of the outsourcing industry by the end of 2014 with estimated revenue of $17.5 billion.

In the next two years, the government is aiming at reaching at least $25 billion in revenue, and hit the 1.3 million direct employees. (FREEMAN)