Make RP economy knowledge-based

The new president’s incoming administration must enact policies to enable the Philippines to have a knowledge-based economy, a step ahead from the service-based economy it is now developing into, according to XMG Global, a Canadian think-tank with an Asia Pacific office in Makati City. The new administration must also craft policies to strengthen the foundations of e-government in the country, with priority placed on online services, which meet basic social needs of Filipinos such as education and public health.

The recommendations formed part of an advisory package written in a white paper, “Letter to the Next Philippine President: Charting New Directions in ICT,” an extended summary of which was e-mailed to The Manila Times by a representative of its head office in Victoria, Canada.

XMG Global is a think-tank that specializes in the study and advisories of policy issues in ICT. Its Asia Pacific office also serves as its Philippine office headed by its founder-president, Lauro Vives, a Filipino-Canadian.

The white paper said the growth of the BPO sector had now caused the country to move towards a service-based economy, a development currently sustainable. But efforts by other countries to penetrate the global market for offshore services could cause such economic development to reach a plateau, it warned.

“In response, the next administration must start to deal with the pillars of a knowledge-based economy,” the XMG Global white paper said. Such would involve legislation to promote development of intellectual property and extend protection to it; strengthening of the country’s legal and judicial system to deal with intellectual property rights issues; upgrading the quality of the country’s educational system; promotion of increased spending on R&D; and further expansion as well as strengthening of the country’s digital infrastructure network.

The XMG Global white paper urged that support for such and similar initiatives by the new administration should be clear and equivocal.

At the same time, the XMG Global white paper said that the new Philippine president would have to craft initiatives to strengthen the foundations of e-government in the country. Such initiatives could be implemented in phases, but priority would have to be on online services responding to the Filipino people’s basic social needs.

Development of a national single window—an online portal for the Philippines—would also have to be undertaken. Such would enable easier use of online trading and other forms of e-commerce while upgrading the standards of the conduct of business in the country, according to the XMG Global white paper.

Other initiatives recommended by the XMG Global white paper were the following: (1) Creation of an information exchange facility to more effectively tap the talents of Filipino ICT professionals abroad; (2) Resolution of armed conflicts and prevention of violence in the countryside to spur further investments in ICT; (3) Heightened and more effective marketing efforts to protect and enable further gains by the BPO sector in world markets; (4) Enactment of a supportive policy and regulatory framework for ICT, including creation of a formal and binding ICT governing body.

“Bottomline: ICT is fundamental to growth and sustainability of the Philippine economy,” the XMG Global white paper stated. –IKE SUAREZ CORRESPONDENT, Manila Times