Olongapo Telecom & Information Technology

Friday, December 21, 2007

RP IT industry clamoring for ICT department--SunPhil exec

RP IT industry clamoring for ICT department--SunPhil exec


By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net


MANILA, Philippines -- If it’s going to take a “miracle” for a proposed bill creating the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), then so be it, the outgoing president of the Information Technology Association of the Philippines (ITAP) said.

Cynthia Mamon, also president and managing director of Sun Microsystems Philippines (SunPhil), said the local IT industry is still clamoring for the creation of a department that would champion ICT in government.

“We in the IT industry are united in supporting the development of the ICT industry. One thing we’ve been clamoring for is the creation of the DICT. We feel that without a strong, fully funded authority in IT -- a champion -- it would be very difficult to push IT as a competitive strategy,” Mamon said.

Mamon stressed that if the Philippines wants to become globally competitive, the local ICT industry needs a “focused” government leadership as well as a physical and human resource infrastructure to help develop the industry.

The outgoing ITAP president lamented that corruption continues to mar ICT projects in government, citing the voided P1.3-billion computerization project of the Commission on Elections and the recent and controversial National Broadband Network.

The House committee on information and communications technology has created a technical working group to work on consolidating several bills proposing the creation of the DICT.

The House ICT the committee is chaired by Catanduanes Representative Joseph Santiago. Representatives Luis Villafuerte was named chair of the technical working group.

The proposed department of ICT hopes to oversee all ICT projects and activities in government. Currently, the CICT has been created by the Office of the President as an interim body to the planned department.

Similar bills creating the department of ICT were pushed in previous Congress. One was House Bill 3218, which was filed under former Congressman Simeon Kintanar (2nd District, Cebu) in the 13th Congress.

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