Philippines to partner with US, India to construct digital public infra

Philippines Parliament Speaker Ferdinand Martin G Romualdez on Saturday suggested that the country alongwith US, and India should partner to construct digital public infrastructure, according to the Philippines House of Representative press release.

"It is very important for the Philippines, India, and the US to lead in this digital public infrastructure initiative because nations have much to gain from this," he said following the Digital Public Infrastructure lecture at the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington.

He also had a brief chat with Nandan Nilekani, one of the founders of the Indian multinational information technology company Infosys.

He said building public digital platforms "is very much aligned with the campaign promise of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to speed up the country's digital transformation," added the release.

"This is the reason why the House of Representatives has passed the E-Governance/E-Government Bill, which seeks to shift the entire bureaucracy to the digital space for faster and transparent delivery of services, and for better engagement with the public," he said.

The House of Representatives passed on third reading an e-governance bill on March 6. A counterpart bill in the Senate is currently at the committee level.

If passed into law, the digitization of paper documents and processes is expected to encourage cooperation between the government and the private sector in improving the ease of doing business.

"Digitalization will definitely prove to be the panacea to the economic problems left behind by COVID-19," Speaker Romualdez said.

The information technology and business process management industries in India account for over 55 per cent of the global outsourcing market.

The Indian Government also launched its Digital India Mission in 2015 to focus on using technology and digitalization to enhance governance.

Meanwhile, the United States Agency for International Development in January allotted USD 18 million to help Philippine small and medium enterprises enhance their digitalization transformation.

Romualdez bared that during the event IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva extended her best wishes to the Philippines and its strong economy, read the release.

"She is very, very delighted with our attendance and presence during the Spring Meeting of the IMF here in Washington D.C. We look forward to further interaction with the IMF, World Bank, and other leading financial institutions," said Romualdez.