Three years after Yolanda, information and communication technology (ICT) leaders were inspired to see remarkable resiliency and tremendous amount of rebuilding in Leyte last week as they gathered for the 8th National ICT Summit held in Palo, Leyte on November 10, 2016.
National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP) president Wilfredo Sa-a, Jr. opened the summit with a positive challenge for ICT advocates to serve as catalysts to help rebuild Leyte better and even faster.
NICP has always branded itself as the recognized champion for countryside development through ICT, and with this year's theme "Accelerate Growth thru Digital Economy" we have continued to be faithful to the brand, Sa-a stressed.
The Visayas ICT Cluster of NICP unanimously agreed to choose Leyte as host this year to support the efforts of the Eastern Visayas Federation for Information and Communications Technology (EVFIT) in promoting Leyte and Tacloban for ICT-enabled jobs and investments.
Sa-a emphasized that the IT/BPM industry has generated at least 300,000 jobs in the countryside since NICP has actively developed and promoted cities outside of Metro Manila like Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, and Metro Clark. Much of this success could also be credited to the efforts of then Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) which has evolved as ICT Office under the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and now to the newly created Department of ICT.
Today, NICP continues to partner with DICT in not only bringing IT/BPM jobs to the countryside but also creating new opportunities such as Rural Impact Sourcing or home based outsourcing and encouraging our local “tech-preneurs” to go into startups.
Through the 8th NICP ICT Summit, we want the ICT companies to rediscover the potential of Leyte/Samar through its people. And at the same time share the exciting challenges of the newly launched Roadmap 2022 of the IT/BPM industry which stresses its continued growth. But this time growth is focused on higher value or more complex services. And we will be seeing more growth in the countryside rather than in Metro Manila, Sa-a said.
More than 600 delegates, forty ICT councils, and local government units gathered in Leyte for the summit last Nov. 10 which was followed by the 5th awarding ceremony for the Excellence in ICT for Good Governance (eGOV Awards for LGUs), an NICP flagship project, which was held on November 11 in Tacloban City.
Source: JBS
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