The Impact of Digitalization in the Philippines

Matthias Corman, Secretary-General for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), provided insight into the role of digitalization in affecting the global economy and creating new markets.

“An increase in digital connectivity between two countries leads to increased export of goods and services,” Cormann said. “Digitalization also facilitates border processes, reducing the cost of doing business when [they] are automated. However, maintaining these economies comes with risks.”

Cormann emphasizes the importance of the government’s role in placing policies that will aid small and medium-sized businesses during the digital transformation.

“Responsible governance…is critical to optimizing the benefits [of advanced technologies] by better managing the potential risks associated with the digital transformation of our economies,” Cormann explained. “Digitalization has disrupted and reshaped dynamics – ensuring that policies and regulations remain appropriate and well-adapted is key,” he said.

In the Philippines, Marcos said that the country’s connectivity rate was “still pretty low” and stressed that the country should be “at the very least at the same level of digitalization” as other Asian countries. Thus, pushing for competitiveness in connectivity and digitalization with its neighboring countries.

“We are still below 70% and that’s not good enough, especially for an archipelagic country such as ours where connectivity is exceedingly important because we have many isolated communities who need some form of contact, some form of communication with the rest of the country, with the rest of the world,” Marcos said.

“When I look around when I was in ASEAN and APEC, I saw that we are not too badly off but we could do so much better. And if we are to compete properly with our neighbors and that time will come and it is coming now very, very quickly upon us, that time will – when that time comes, we will have to compete with our neighbor countries because the region is still going to be – in my estimation, in my view, this region is still going to be the driver of the global economy as soon as things ‘normalize’, he added.

Marcos then urged relevant government agencies and the private sector to “ensure that these efforts will be implemented, they will be strengthened, and translated into a more efficient delivery of government services.”

“Our digital infrastructure and services will definitely change – has already changed the way we experience the world around us. It has changed everything. It has changed – the pandemic changed everything and the internet changed right along with it,” President Marcos said.

Marcos added that digitalization transformation will also play a key role improve business processes.

“This will simplify everything that we do within the business of government as we try to process and we try to serve the public in giving them all the services that are necessary and making it easy for them to avail of those services,” Marcos said.

Sources: GMA News, U.S. Chamber of Commerce