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Thursday, June 23, 2005
Toral: Cebu has gone a long way
By Janette Toral
Digital Filipino
MATURING INDUSTRY. Way to go, Cebu! Congratulations to the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Department of Trade and Industry, and Board of Investments for the Cebu ICT 2005 that is ongoing at Waterfront Cebu City Hotel.
This is the biggest event to date with 36 implementing institutional partners. Hats off to Bonifacio Belen of Cedf-it for achieving such a feat. This event is an important sign that we are maturing as an industry or sector. We are gradually unifying.
Cebu has gone a long way from only a handful of companies four years ago, with nearly 60 software and IT-enabled service companies today.
This growth has provided nearly 10,000 job opportunities. With
Manila-level salaries and lower cost of living, our IT professionals are enjoying higher purchasing power than ever before.
As the sector freely unifies, we hope we’ll be inspired to pursue greater things, looking beyond ourselves to our country and the next generation of IT leaders.
E-Commerce Czar. Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Juan Santos just announced his office’s renewed commitment to leading the implementation of the E-Commerce Law.
This is great news. There are so many concerns right now in this area that only the DTI is capable and empowered, as stated in the law, to address them.
These include the creation of policy guidelines in the area of data privacy and initiating intervention to make e-commerce accessible to small and medium enterprises, among others.
He also challenged the private sector to take the lead in this area and prepare to have ICT representation in the General Agreement of Trade in Services negotiation.
Nasscom president Kiran Karnik expressed his support in that area and sees it as an opportunity where the Philippines and India can closely collaborate. He also agreed to Sen. Mar Roxas’ message of using ICT by businesses to boost domestic market demand and improve the local economy.
BayanTrade at five. Last Tuesday, BayanTrade celebrated its fifth anniversary.
The entity has evolved from being an IT company to a full business process out-sourcing supply chain global service provider.
Facilitating trade with multinational companies has really put BayanTrade at a different level from its peers in the field.
Focus on building blocks. I got the chance to participate in the Government CIO Forum facilitated by the Commission on ICT, Microsoft and the CIO Forum, an organization composed of government ICT personnel. The forum gave the opportunity to participants to come up with programs, plans and projects in the area of security, governance, and integration.
One concern raised by the National Computer Center is that e-government funds are not fully used, resulting at times in the non-pursuit of initially identified projects. From that concern, the best insights came out.
Several participants expressed the need for government agencies to work on the ICT requirements within their own offices first before they can even think of interconnecting with fellow agencies or departments.
(janette@digitalfilipino.com)
(June 23, 2005 issue)
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