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Thursday, March 30, 2006
Help Cebu avoid digital divide: Gwen to council
How do you make information and communications technology (ICT), rooted as it is in the urban jungle, “relevant to those who are out there in the countryside”?
That’s the challenge that Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia raised yesterday, during the inaugural meeting of the Cebu Provincial ICT Council.
Created as part of the Capitol’s effort to make Cebu the ICT hub of Central Visayas, the council discussed, among others, the holding of an ICT summit in Cebu this May.
“Today, we send the message that as Cebu bids to become the ICT hub in the region, the Provincial Government of Cebu shall not stand idly by. We shall take the lead,” said Garcia. She committed to help in terms of logistics for the summit.
Garcia signed last Tuesday the executive order that created the council.
E-commerce
Its major function is to formulate policies, plans and programs for the development, promotion and application of e-commerce and ICT in the province.
The council is also tasked with promoting “strategic partnerships and alliances” among and between local and international ICT firms, research and development, education and training institutions, technology providers, developers and manufacturers.
Garcia chairs the council.
Its members are Provincial Board (PB) Member Carmiano Kintanar, chairman of the committee on information technology; PB Member Juan Bolo, chairman of the committee on education; League of Municipalities of the Philippines President Ronald Allan Cesante; Nelia Navarro of the Department of Trade and Industry; Recaredo Borgonia of the Department of Education; Marlene Rodriguez of Neda; and Virgilio Peña, chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT).
Garcia recognized that the “biggest challenge” they are facing is to make their moves meaningful to the entire province.
“As the industry grows, we should take care that this does not aggravate the digital divide, that we bring the benefits of IT to the countryside, instead of further alienating the countryside from the world of IT. We should make the IT real to the farmer in
Argao and the fishermen in Pinamungajan. We should keep it real,” she said in her speech. (MBG)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 30, 2006 issue)
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