AS CONGRESS resumes regular sessions this week, Sen. Edgardo Angara pressed for early approval of the bill creating a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in order, he said, to meet global broadband targets set by the Broadband Commission on Digital Development of the United Nations.
Angara, who chairs the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, said the Broadband Commission recently agreed on a set of four new “ambitious but achievable” targets that both developed and developing countries should attain by 2015.
According to the UN Broadband Commission, all countries should have a national policy where broadband is included in universal access definitions or strategies should be outlined on how entry-level broadband services can be made more affordable. He said the targets also required that in four years, 40 percent of all households in developing countries should have Internet access. The Internet penetration rate should equal 50 percent of the population.
“For the country to meaningfully participate in the ICT-driven future, we have to ensure that broadband Internet is widely available and affordable to all,” Angara explained. “A task like this isn’t easy and requires close coordination between ICT stakeholders.
He said, “We are already making inroads in enhancing our broadband infrastructure. [But] government needs to step up and create a DICT that will become the focal point of such efforts.”
The senator cited studies from Nielsen saying that only one out of three Filipinos, or more than 30 million (of the estimated current Philippine population of 94 million) have access to the Internet.
This, he said, is lower than figures shown for Malaysia and Singapore, where 38 percent and 67 percent of their respective populations, respectively, are able to log on to the Web.
Angara added that the IT Industry Competitiveness Index from Business Software Alliance ranked the Philippines 52nd out of 66 countries in terms of its capability in supporting an IT production sector.
“Our competitiveness is at stake—we lag behind our neighbors not only in setting up the necessary broadband infrastructure, but also in laying down the policy environment conducive to the growth of a full-fledged IT industry,” he said. “We need to hasten the passage of a DICT bill so that we can catch up as quickly as possible.”
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By: Butch Fernandez
Source: Business Mirror, Nov. 13, 2011
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