Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the National Information Technology Summit
[Delivered at Malacañang, September 4, 1995]
Our highway
to the future
I COMMEND YOU for organizing this National Information Technology (IT) Summit. I have a feeling we are making history here. These days, of course, almost anything having to do with information technology is history-making.
But this meeting is truly special and truly significant. It marks the first time the information technology industry and the Philippine Government got together to make joint decisions and commitments to develop information technology—and so help our country leapfrog into the future.
Going global
I congratulate you of the private sector on your decision to form the Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines, and to work closely with the National Information Technology Council, whose two chairmen are the Executive Secretary and the Director General of the National Economic and Development Authority.
This makes it possible for us to think and act as part of a global network—to give our Philippines the capability to do business effectively with the rest of the world.
The Philippine information infrastructure you are building together will be our highway to the future.
This is the surest sign we have of the Filipino’s resolve to take full part in the global information society. Nothing has so changed the character of societies and cultures around the world over the past decade as much as the freedom and the abundance of information. This was made possible by new technologies in computers and communications—for which more startling applications are being discovered every day. The global information technology market had grown to US$430 billion by 1994—with information technology investments, trading and consumption growing fastest in the Asia-Pacific.
The information revolution
This information revolution has had profound—and liberative effects on politics, economies and the whole of society. Most of all, it has helped to promote democracy around the world—by empowering ordinary people, by opening their eyes and their minds to the full possibilities of the world they live in.
My Administration constantly promotes the principle that information is the principal currency of democracy. Recall our People Power Revolution at EDSA in February 1986, which restored democracy in our country: our main weapons then were information and communication.
The information revolution has encouraged new ways of thinking about old problems. It has promoted greater innovation, efficiency and productivity—not only in products, but in organizations and in the way ordinary people do things.
As Patricia Seybold—an internationally known networking expert—suggests, no technological innovation can succeed without simultaneous change in organizations. “If we are going to make companies more responsive, more flexible and more viable in the global information economy,” Seybold says, “then we have to teach our organizations to learn. For better or for worse, that responsibility is falling squarely on the shoulders of the information technologist.”
A leapfrogging strategy
Of the greatest importance to countries like ours is that information technology has produced exciting industries based largely on human skills, ingenuity and resourcefulness. This may even make it possible—as some experts have suggested—for the Philippines to adopt a leapfrogging strategy—to bypass the conventional “smokestack” industrialization and plunge directly into the service industries of the Information Age.
This strategy I fully subscribe to and support.
But we are not alone in this enthusiasm. We cannot be alone in formulating globally-competitive strategies for developing information technology. All throughout the Asia-Pacific, national economies and societies are gearing up to seize the same opportunity. Not only must we stay in step; we must aim to take the lead—lest we be left behind again.
As the global economy becomes more highly integrated and more competitive, small- and medium-scale corporations will begin to possess a clear advantage—an apparent paradox first observed by the futurist John Naisbitt.
This is why we are emphasizing the development of corporations of this size. The first APEC Leaders’ Summit in Seattle in November 1993 has in fact approved my proposal to make the Philippines the permanent site of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Center for Training and Technology Transfer for Small- and Medium-Scale Enterprises.
A symbiotic relationship
The development and economic growth of information technology have a symbiotic relationship.
In its many forms and applications, information technology is a vital part of the infrastructure of economic growth. And you—as information technology entrepreneurs—have the leading role in creating opportunities for us in this synergistic link between information technology and national development.
To reinforce this connection, I constituted the National Information Technology Council through Executive Order 190 on July 19, 1994. The Council brings together Government and the private sector in carrying out the national information technology plan in support of our shared vision of Philippines 2000.
I have reviewed the progress of the Council’s work and approved its key strategies.
First, we will push information technology as a means of enhancing the global competitiveness of our basic industries. The ongoing liberalization of the telecommunications sector will be a key factor in this effort. So will the use of information technology in Government—through such programs as export promotion—and in national industry through such technologies as electronic data interchange.
Second, we will develop the information technology industry’s export potential as much as we can. Our talent pool of bright and creative young people gives us a comparative advantage in this field. I see no reason why we cannot carve a niche for ourselves in the knowledge industries.
What we need to do
Of course, doing so will not be easy. Some imposing obstacles stand in our way—for one, our shortage of qualified professionals in information technology. To address this, I hereby repeat my directive to the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and the Commission on Higher Education to place greater emphasis on information technology and knowledge-based programs at every level of our education system.
We should also encourage more investments-both public and private—in research and development on the industrial uses of information technology and on its commercial products.
To make Philippine industries fully competitive, we must take two decisive steps.
The first of these is to automate all forms of commercial transactions.
The second is to undertake well-planned activities to build up—bit by bit—our own information highway: the Philippine Information Infrastructure.
The joint decisions and commitments we are making today are crucial first steps in making the Philippines a key player in information technology and in the knowledge industries in the Asia-Pacific.
The big difference
I now approve formally the resolutions adopted by this summit and I direct the National Information Technology Council—through its Chairman, the Executive Secretary—to ensure the immediate implementation of these resolutions.
In closing, let me say that although information technology has become the most powerful technological tool of this decade—and of the coming century—in the end, it will still be people working together creatively—who will make the big difference.
Information technology will work. It will advance Philippine progress—and this progress will be guided by how closely and how earnestly we ourselves work together—for the purpose we share—which is our people’s benefit.