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Thursday, March 30, 2006
Information technology to spread to rural Cebu
By the year 2010, every high school student will have first-hand experience with computers as information and communications technology (ICT) development will spread even to rural areas in Cebu province.
“By 2010, we expect that anywhere you go in the province, there will be benefits of ICT like access to wi-max, 3G and phone signal, among other technologies,” said Commission on Information and Communications Technology Commissioner Dondi Mapa yesterday during the opening of the Second Cebu ICT Strategy Summit.
Computer literacy
“By 2010, we expect to see that every high school graduate has a first-hand experience with a computer or that every college graduate have some level of computer literacy,” he added.
Mapa said ICT development in Cebu will also create more jobs in the sector and prevent Cebuanos from leaving the country to work overseas.
The three-month summit is expected to gather ICT stakeholders who will map out “next steps” in promoting Cebu as a globally competitive ICT player. The event aims to identify specific strategic plans in the next five years to mold the province into a world-class ICT Hub.
Coordinated
Caesar Atienza, a member of the summit’s executive committee, said the concept is to have a “coordinated approach” in developing ICT in the province and to ensure that ICT benefits will trickle down to the countryside.
He said some sectors are concerned that the rural society would be left behind in technological development.
To address the digital divide and promote “balanced development,” ICT stakeholders from the government and private sectors have to do something, Atienza said.
IBM Philippines general manager Joaquin Quintos, a member of the Provincial ICT Council, noted that efforts to develop the ICT industry will not end after the summit.
Most challenging
The most challenging part is the implementation of the “roadmap” that they will develop during the summit, he said.
Wilson Ng, president and chief executive officer of Ng Khai Development Corp., pointed out that there is a need to help people see the relevance of ICT, which is still a “big word” for many Filipinos.
He said the country has more than one million registered businesses, but only the top 5,000 companies use ICT in their operations.
This means 99.5 percent or 995,000 still don’t use ICT, he said. (ALC)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 30, 2006 issue)
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