By Alexander Villafania
PASIG CITY, METRO MANILA – Stemming from the original Philippine Strategic Roadmap developed in 2005, the new Philippine Digital Strategy (PDS), developed by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), is an updated version that intends to build on the previous plan.
The first roadmap identified the key areas for ICT development: infrastructure, cyber services, human capital, and e-governance. This time, the PDS focuses on improving the ICT processes of these four “pillars” and to link them together.
But what are the salient points of the PDS? In a country where there are at least 25 million Internet users and an estimated 80 million mobile phone subscribers, it's hard to believe that many people are unaware of the ICT programs that have been in place or are planned to be implemented.
In fact, many of the ICT-related services that are being used by ordinary citizens actually came from previous implementations of the government.
For better understanding, here is a short overview of what the PDS and the role of all sectors of society, from government, private sector, and even citizens. The PDS itself is a 154-page plan that encompasses nearly all aspects of ICT development in the Philippines.
The PDS has four “pillars” as well. These are 1) transparent government and efficient services, 2) internet opportunity for all, 3) investing in people and digital literacy for all, 4) ICT industry and business innovation for national development.
Embedded in these four thrusts are themes on gender equality, “green” ICT, and general ICT awareness.
Transparent government
The objective here is to enhance public trust in government, increased citizen participation in governance, and improving government public online services. These are done by creating high level leadership to direct, coordinate and implement e-government and e-governance; establish upgrade and improve government ICT infrastructure; improve organizational coordination among different agencies using ICT; and increase the provisions of accessible and affordable government data to the public.
Internet opportunity for all
Here, the government would focus on increasing digital literacy among government agencies and increasing Internet access to everyone. In addition, access should be affordable, reliable, sustainable, and also, remain secure against unwanted use.
This would be a touchy issue as one direction in this particular thrust is to develop a national broadband policy, which sounds like but not necessary the same as the controversial national broadband project. Still, the goal remains intact since the effectivity of the PDS lies also in its capability to be accessible to all areas of society, which can only be completed through a national broadband policy.
Digital literacy
While similar to the second thrust, digital literacy focuses more on expanding ICT awareness and use for the public. The education sector is the primary target for Digital Literacy. When all areas of the community have access to an Internet infrastructure, it would be the time to step up delivery of education using ICT.
This would be done by building up the education system with new curriculums that expand ICT knowledge among students in all levels; implementing incentive-based professional development program for teachers; addressing shortfall of skilled workforce for industries that need ICT professionals; and developing a national database on education-related information.
ICT industry and business innovation
This is the business side of the PDS. The objectives here are to improve the business sector using ICT; encouraging ICT innovation and commercialization, building original digital content and media, and increasing ICT-enabled jobs in all regions.
The actions to take are to provide knowledge and tools on ICT usage for all types of businesses, especially micro- to small-and-medium scale enterprises; preparing marketing and brand management plant to help in attracting investments in ICT research; and supporting development of digital content and media, which includes software, video games, animation, and electronic publishing.
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