BOGO City is gearing up to become a “smarter city” through the installation of a 50-kilometer fiber optic line that will bring technology closer to the grassroots level.

Wilfredo Sa-a Jr., managing director of Cebu Information Technology (IT) - Business Process Management (BPM) Organization (Cib.O) said by being a “smarter city,” locators from the BPM industry can tap the local government unit for job generation.

“The city mayor of Bogo is very interested to make their city one of the ‘smarter cities’ in the country so they are very advanced in laying out the fiber optic lines within the city and they now have a command center,” Sa-a said.

By having fiber optic lines, internet connectivity can travel at faster speeds and longer distances.

“They are planning to offer more government services that can be accessed online by their people so they are one of the more forward-looking cities. They are trying to bring all these advantages to their city, laying down the foundation and the infrastructure that can hopefully attract more businesses and create more jobs in the city,” he said.

Roger Toñacao, Bogo’s IT Department Head and the President of the city’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Council, said they target to complete the fiber optic connection by the year in phases to bring the vital services right to the farthest mountain barangays in their city.

Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) 7 Assistant Regional Director Frederick Amores said they are seeing more local government units prioritizing technology to serve their communities.

“They have been taking initiative because eventually technology will be part of the lifeblood of a city. Infrastructure does not only mean road, electricity and water but it now includes technology which is the internet,” he said during the Kapihan sa PIA forum.

Meanwhile, Bogo City is the host for this year’s Visayas ICT Conference (Victor) 2019 on Feb. 21 to discuss updates on the technology infrastructure and the IT industry. A job fair is also slated on Feb. 22.

The conference will gather ICT stakeholders from the Visayas with speakers from Singapore and top executives of big BPM companies like Sykes, Qualfon and Teleperformance in the country.

Sa-a said they are expecting some 200 ICT delegates from the country of which 80 percent will come from the Visayas. Victor Conference is an annual ICT event organized by Victor and the National ICT Federation of the Philippines and the DICT.