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Saturday, June 25, 2005
Capitol creates IT council
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia signed yesterday an executive order creating the Provincial Information Technology Council to “bring government closer to people” and speed up the delivery of basic services.
The council, which she said is the first of its kind in the country, will be composed of lead agencies of government, local government units, IT leaders in business, academe, private sector and civil society.
The move was welcomed by the business sector, which has been actively promoting information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives in the province.
“It’s a bright light at the end of the tunnel. We in the private sector have been looking at ICT as a sunrise industry. It generates not only jobs, but high-paying jobs,” Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Robert Go said, when sought for reaction.
Garcia made the announcement in her keynote address last Thursday, on Cebu as an Asian iformation technology hub, at the 1st International Conference and Exhibition on Business and ICT at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel.
Go said that with Garcia’s pronouncement, the “missing part of the puzzle has been found” in their goal to make Cebu an ICT hub.
He added that government support is very important, especially in finding ideal locations for businesses and in getting support
in every single town in the province.
“All systems go na,” he added.
However, Garcia said she sees more than the IT industry’s potential for growth.
“We make this commitment not just because the IT industry has potential for growth, but because I believe that, more than any other industry, IT has the potential for bridging the gap between government and the people, bringing government closer to the people, breaking geographical barriers, bridging distances and speeding up the delivery of basic services to the people,” she said in her speech.
IT, she added, “demolishes the basic argument for fragmenting government units into smaller ones, and encourages instead—and provides technological support for—the global trend towards integration.”
“Insofar as it promotes unity, therefore, IT speaks to the heart of every Cebuano at this time when its territorial integrity is being threatened by ill-conceived proposals, premised upon arguments that IT has, definitively, rendered obsolete. For this reason, we—government, business, the private sector and civil society—are united behind IT, and IT shall provide the engine to power this unity,” she added.
Garcia said that aside from having the infrastructure to sustain development, a low crime rate and an “independent, self-reliant, entrepreneurial culture that pervades the island,” Cebu has a highly educated, English-speaking workforce.
She revealed that the workforce from the 39 colleges and the seven universities in the province powers IT-related investments, which now make up six of 10 investments that come to Cebu.
Aside from having a Philippine Economic Zone Authority-registered IT park, Cebu has a high concentration of broadband services, more than 30 Internet service providers, internationally accredited software learning centers and the highest density of Internet users in the country.
(June 25, 2005 issue)
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