Koree Monteloyola

Recommendations

The following are the factors that the Philippine government should be aware of in order for the country to reach its targets in the ICT roadmap. In a quarterly survey¹⁷ conducted by BPAP about the factors that limits the growth of ICT in the Philippines the following results were delivered:

1. Fifty-one percent of respondents indicated that English proficiency has a “very significant impact” on their organizations’ ability to grow. ¹⁷
2. On a scale of one to seven with seven indicating “negative image of Philippines is a significant issue,” 46% of respondents responded in a range of five to six, with 18 percent indicating negative image is a significant issue when recruiting clients. ¹⁷
3. 69%, indicated that a positive perception of the Philippines has a somewhat significant to significant impact on client recruitment, responding in the range of five to seven. ¹⁷
4. The top three responses on what the Philippines should improve are overall country image (85%), political stability (80%), and English proficiency (55%).¹⁷
5. The top three responses on what the Philippines should do to improve its image were: 1) undertake a public relations program (75%); 2) participate in major international trade shows (68%); and, 3) provide a better online presence (65%).¹⁷

Conclusion

I believe that if the government can become more stable it would bear good results for its people, especially for the business sector. My only concern regarding the creation of DICT is (as always) the qualifications of the people who are going to manage this department in the future. It would be useless if the DICT would be created and be given budgets but in the end there would be mishandling of funds. Somehow I agree with Pres. NoyNoy’s view on the creation of DICT.

I have to laud BPAP’s efforts on uplifting the ICT in the Philippines. Their plans and research really reaches the core of the problems in the Philippines, and it shows that the technical side is the least of the problem. The Philippines weakness could also be its strength (and vice versa). The initiative should come from the government.

I’m glad that the Philippines became the world’s #1 in BPO. We can conclude that English proficiency plays a major role in our ICT growth. I hope that we can reach all the targets set in the ICT roadmap, because I believe in the skills and talents of Filipinos. If the right people work together, everything is possible.

Continue Reading:

1. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 1)
2. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 2)
3. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 3)
4. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 4)

ICT Roadmap of Philippines, Japan and Singapore

If we were to compare the ICT roadmap of the Philippines to Japan and Singapore, it is without doubt that ours is far from their ICT visions. Japan and Singapore are considered to be 1st world countries, thus they are highly capable in producing impressive and high-tech ICT infrastructures. Ours mirrors the primary problem that a 3rd world usually suffers – unemployment. Most of the proposals and schemes in the Philippine IT-BPO Road Map 2011-2016¹⁴ focus on talent or skill development. The roadmap identifies 5 priorities of BPAP:

• Set driving standards and accreditation to ensure a better match between the skills of graduates with the requirements of industry;
• Promote more aggressive internal marketing of the industry to the local talent pool
• Strengthen awareness of the Philippine value proposition in IT, voice and non-voice BPO services in existing and new markets;
• Advocate high impact public policies
• Strengthen our Public-Private Partnership with government to fund key programs such as study-to-work training programs.

Philippine IT-BPO Road Map 2011-2016 suggests that IT-BPO and GIC industry annual revenues could more than double from $9 billion in 2010 to $25 billion in 2016.¹⁴ BPAP and the government remain optimistic with their set targets. Thanks to the Philippines high English literacy rate, the Philippines enjoys a good share in the global BPO industry.

Japan: ICT Hatoyama Plan¹⁵

If we are going to observe Japan’s ICT roadmap, we can tell that they are a rich country, since their problems and plans are about maintaining and/or upgrading their current technology it reflects the challenges they have in their society which is far less disturbing than the Philippines.
The plan aims to double ICT industries over the medium term through 2015-2020 (creating new markets of as much as 100 trillion yen). The specific policies in their ICT roadmap are:

• Create safe and secure networks
• Nurture highly-skilled ICT human resource
• Development and implementation of ubiquitous Greent ICT
• Enhancing the international competitiveness of ICT industries
• Nurture and reinforce creative industries
• Build advanced digital networks

These six policies would build an infrastructure supporting latent potential of Japan’s industry, government and regional communities.

Singapore: Intelligent Nation (iN2015) Masterplan

iN2015 was launched in 2006. Singapore has consistently performed well in international infocomm and e-Government rankings.  Recently, the World Economic Forum ranked Singapore second in its Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010 which measured the impact of ICT on the development process and the competitiveness of nations.  For the second year running, Singapore also topped the Waseda University World e-Government Ranking, which monitors and analyses the development of e-Government worldwide.¹⁶

Singapore’s strategy with in2015¹⁶

• To establish an ultra-high speed, pervasive, intelligent and trusted infocomm infrastructure
• To develop a globally competitive infocomm industry
• To develop an infocomm-savvy workforce and globally competitive infocomm manpower
• To spearhead the transformation of key economic sectors, government and society through more sophisticated and innovative use of infocomm.

Desired outcomes¹⁶

• Enriched lives through infocomm
• Enhanced economic competitiveness and innovation through infocomm
• Increased growth and competitiveness of the infocomm industry

Goals with in2015¹⁶

• To be #1 in the world in harnessing infocomm to add value to the economy and society
• To realise a 2-fold increase in the value-add of the infocomm industry to S$26 billion
• To realise a 3-fold increase in infocomm export revenue to S$60 billion
• To create 80,000 additional jobs
• To achieve 90 per cent broadband usage in all homes
• To achieve 100 per cent computer ownership in homes with school-going children

Continue Reading:

1. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 1)
2. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 2)
3. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 3)
4. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 4)

Senate Bill No. 2546: DICT Act of 2008

On August 14, 2008, a senate bill was prepared and submitted jointly by the Committee(s) on science and technology, civil service and government reorganization and finance with senator(s) Jinggoy P. Ejercito-Estrada, Loren B. Legarda and Edgardo J. Angara as author(s) per committee report no. 93,  Recommending its approval in substitution of SBNos. 320 and 920.;⁶ Senate Bill 2546 is an act creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), defining its powers and functions, appropriating funds therefore, and for other purposes.⁶

The primary purpose of this department would be to improve ICT infrastructure in the country. It would pull various communications related offices in the Office of the President and DOTC.⁷ Issues in Information Technology such as intellectual property rights, human resources, data protection, security, and quality management and standards would be addressed by this department. Majority of the IT industry is hoping that the bill would be approved and signed. The bill is still pending as of writing.

But President Aquino, who was still running for presidency at that time, already rejected this proposal. In an article published in Philippine Daily Inquirer (online) on February 2010, the president said that a government agency that focuses on ICT only plays a supportive role, and stated:

“Ang problema lang, ang paniwala namin napakarami na tayong mga offices [and] officers who are not actually doing something useful (We think the government already has too many offices [and] officers who are not actually doing something useful),"⁸

Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP)⁹

BPAP was founded in 2004, and is supported by many stakeholders. They include the Philippine government, Philippine and foreign chambers of commerce, and allied industries such as property, telecommunications, and employee benefits. Its mission and vision as stated in their website are the following:

Mission: Promote the competitive advantages and the growth potential of the Philippines in existing and new areas of outsourcing and support the industry in areas such as offshore marketing, education and training, security and privacy, legislation and public policy, among others.¹⁰

Vision: To make the Philippines the number one destination for voice and non-voice services worldwide.¹⁰

BPAP has been a strong (if not, the strongest) private sector ally or partner of the Philippine government. Many believed that in order for an ICT roadmap to be successfully formulated and implemented there must be a good partnership between the government and private sectors in a country. BPAP with CICT created the Philippine ICT Roadmap in 2010.⁷

Current State of  ICT in the Philippines

According to a research made by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise in February 2012, the value of the ICT market in the Philippines is estimated to $37 billion USD. 30% of the total ICT sales came from Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sales.¹¹

Source: Business Monitor International and IDC¹¹

Furthermore, the study gives a list of the most common offshore outsourcing activities in the Philippines which are: 

• contact or call centre outsourcing
• software development outsourcing 
• web and graphic design outsourcing 
• animation outsourcing
• game development outsourcing 
• online marketing - SEO and SEM outsourcing 
• engineering design and architecture outsourcing 
• medical transcription outsourcing legal transcription outsourcing
• finance and accounting outsourcing 
• human resources administration outsourcing

It is also stated in the paper that even though BPOs in the Philippines have high ICT spending, the local industry continues to have low consumption of ICT products. In simple terms, foreign demands for BPOs in the Philippines are high but local demands are low.

In 2011, it was reported that the Philippines have overtaken India, as the world’s number one country for BPO and shared services. Consequently, several India-based call centres and BPOs are relocating to the Philippines. Like Wipro Technologies, which is an outsourcing company headquartered in India, and has an approximate of 2,000 employees.¹¹

Researcher Peter Evans gave the key highlights of a summary of this report about the Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts in the Philippines published on June 2012.¹²

• Growth in mobile subscribers in the Philippines has slowed considerably by 2012 but had still managed to grow by 16% in 2010 followed by 9% in 2011;
• Growth in 2012 was likely to be less than 10%;
• Mobile penetration had passed the 100% milestone;
• Although the SMS market has peaked, Filipinos were still sending almost two billion SMS messages every day by early 2012;
• The country remained a global leader in SMS volumes and usage levels;
• In the meantime, Social networking websites were becoming increasingly popular and changing the shape of the telecoms market;
• Broadband Internet access in the Philippines had witnessed a five year surge in subscriber growth;
• There were an estimated seven million broadband subscribers by end-2011; however, this still only represented around 7% of the population;
• The fixed-line market had lost direction, with no growth expected in the short term;
• The Philippine telecom sector continues to be an important element in the local economy, contributing over 10% to the country’s GDP.

Continue Reading:

1. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 1)
2. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 2)
3. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 3)
4. ICT in the Philippines during the Aquino Administration (part 4)

Digital convergence of news media was called "Mediamorphosis" by researcher Roger Fidler. He actually published a book entitled, "Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media", wherein he gives the 6 fundamental principles in mediamorphosis (page 29).

1. coevolution and coexistence
2. metamorphosis
3. propagation
4. survival
5. opportunity and need
6. delayed adoption

According to the definitions of propagation and survival:

"Emerging forms of communication media propagate dominant traits from earlier forms. These traits are passed on and spread through communicatory codes called languages. While survival states that all forms of communication media, as well as media enterprises are compelled to adapt and evolve for survival in a changing environment. Their only other option is to die."

Based on these assumptions and from what we are already experiencing, methods in gathering information is almost the same, what's noticeable are (1) broadcasters and journalists are provided nowadays with multi-purpose devices like smartphones or PC tablets, so they can publish news via different technologies and (2) how they broadcast news, again they have their laptops or PC tablets so they can also check real time news from other websites.

In terms of producing devcom materials for print and radio, we would often see and hear URLs of websites, this is considered as brand extension in order to promote news from their own sites (online version) or other 3rd party sources like Twitter or Facebook.

In reality, traditional media would not be lost in this technological synergy. I believe that the process in gathering news, designing or layouting of magazines or newspapers, are also applied when creating webpages. The target audience is still the same, what's really changing is the transfer from a physical form (in this case, paper) to virtual form.

The USB tethering feature of Android Froyo allows you to share your phone's mobile network with a laptop or desktop computer, which is similar to the concept of using a usb modem (stick) or dongle.

The 3 major telcos in the Philippines today thar offer mobile broadband services are Globe, Smart and Sun cellular. In the image below, I have Globe Tattoo and Smart Bro USB modems, as you can see I don't have a Sun Cellular USB modem, however, what I do have is a Sun cellular prepaid sim card and an Android Froyo powered HTC Desire. I will use USB tethering to complement what I lack.

Below are the details on how to use this feature:

The essentials:

1. Configure the correct Access Point Name (APN) for your mobile phone. If you have no idea how to do this, contact your telco's customer service. (for prepaid Globe subscribers in the Philippines check my previous post about APN config)
2. Android version 2.2 (codename: Froyo) should be installed on your phone
3. HTC Micro USB data cable
4. Install HTC Sync on your computer.

HTC Sync

HTC Sync serves as a device content manager for your phone using a computer and also installs the required device drivers. By default, the file for this software is already on your phone's SD card, if ever you accidentally deleted this file on your phone, you can go to this link (HTC Sync for all HTC Android Phones) to download the file.

After dowloading and installing HTC Sync, connect your phone to the computer via the micro USB data cable then proceed to HTC Sync device setup. Make sure that 'HTC Sync' is selected in your 'Connect to PC' screen.

You don't really need to sync all of the contents of your phone to the PC at this time, we just have to make sure that HTC Sync can detect your phone and has a saved profile for it.

Just to make sure that everything is working, disconnect your phone from the PC, restart your computer, reconnect your phone to the PC (make sure that 'HTC Sync' is selected in your 'Connect to PC' screen); check if HTC Sync can already detect your phone automatically.

This is a one time setup, you don't need to open this software everytime you want to use USB tethering.

USB Tethering

1. Turn on 'Mobile Network'. There are 2 ways to do this:
   • Do a long press on the power button, on the "Phone options" screen, tap on "Mobile Network" to turn it on (or off).

     

   • Go to "Settings" > "Wireless & Networks" > Tap on the checkbox to turn it on
2. Connect your phone to the PC using the micro USB data cable
3. This time in the "Connect to PC" screen, select USB tethering

   

4. On the taskbar, click on the network connection icon, you would see that a new active network is added on the list. You might get a different name for the new connection. Select the new network and start browsing. Yippee!

   

Here's the the "Local Area Connection Properties" for the new network connection:

I guess this answers a friend's question, 'no? :)