Group urges Senate to pass DICT Bill
BACOLOD CITY — Sangguniang Panlungsod Member Jocelle Batapa-Sigue yesterday said that the National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP), composed of 33 regional ICT councils strongly supports the creation of a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) based on the crucial role that ICT plays in the Philippine economy and urges the senate to approve the bill creating said department before the election.
Batapa, chairperson of the Committee on Energy, Communication and Information Technology, said that the NICP came out with a position paper last year during the term of its former chair, George Sorio of the Metro Clark ICT Council (MCICTC) to call for the immediate approval of Senate Bill 2546 creating the DICT.
The House of Representatives already passed HB 4300 for the same purpose last 2008. In their statement, NICP says “any further delay could have a dampening effect on ICT industry’s future growth in the Philippines, especially during the ongoing global recession. Positive Senate action will ensure the country’s continued competitive edge in the global market place, and provide social and economic opportunities for the Filipino people.”
NICP believes that the creation of the DICT will propel social and economic growth in the countryside. “As the country strives to maintain major strategic importance in ASEAN as well as in the global stage, the participation of stakeholders in the regions are a crucial element in ensuring ICT’s competitiveness and sustaining the fight against poverty in general,” Batapa-Sigue said.
NICP states further “the IT-BPO sector alone, contributed export revenues worth USD 6 billion in dollars in 2008 and created approximately 400,000 job, this, despite the raging economic turmoil that hit the global economy in late 2008. As the private sector will attest, the Philippines desperately needs a stranger government body, duly established through legislation, to sustain our competitive edge in ICT development”.
