PH must expand connectivity to be competitive – Marcos

Laptop with Wi-Fi symbol. STORY: PH must expand connectivity to be competitive – Marcos

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines should aspire to be on the same level of digitalization as its neighboring countries to be competitive, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday at the Telco Summit 2022 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

To achieve that, he urged government agencies and the private sector to help boost connectivity nationwide.

“That’s why we will have to compete, and we will have to cooperate with our neighbors in the region,” he said. “To do that, we must be, at the very least, at the same level of digitalization as they are.  Right now, we are not quite there but let us work hard at it.”

According to Marcos, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has already achieved its goal ahead of schedule, having digitalized 50% of its payments as it continues to work for full digitalization.

The Philippines, he said, has a pretty low digitalization at below 70%.

“That’s not good enough, especially for an archipelagic country such as ours where connectivity is exceedingly important because we have many isolated communities who need some form of contact, some form of communication with the rest of the country, with the rest of the world,” Marcos said.

For that reason, it’s the government’s priority to find new technologies over the internet, whether it’s fiber optic cable, Starlink, or satellite, Marcos noted.

“Whatever the system is appropriate, we need to explore it, and we need to apply it,” he said.

“When that time comes, we will have to compete with our neighbor countries because the region is still going to be… in my estimation, in my view, this region is still going be the driver of the global economy,’” Marcos said.

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