The Philippines climbed eight places from a standstill at No. 86 since 2011 to No. 78 of 148 economies in the Global Information Technology Report 2014. The improvement pushed the country to No. 6 of ten economies in the ASEAN, ahead of Vietnam (No. 84), Cambodia (No. 108), Lao PDR (No. 109), and Myanmar (No. 146).

Published by the World Economic Forum and INSEAD, the Report provides an “overview of the current state of ICT readiness in the world” through the Networked Readiness Index (NRI). The NRI is composed of 54 indicators distributed among ten pillars measuring the environment for ICTs, the readiness of society to use ICTs, the actual usage by stakeholders, and the impacts of ICTs.

An 11-notch jump from No. 98 to No. 87 on political and regulatory environment was attributed to improvements in the perceived efficiency of the legal system in settling disputes (up 31, from No. 107 to No. 76) and challenging regulations (up 31, from No. 102 to No. 71). Significant gains were also recorded on business and innovation environment (up 8, from No. 100 to No. 92); economic impacts (up 8, from No. 56 to No. 48); affordability (up 7, from No. 82 to No. 75); skills (up 4, from No. 73 to No. 69); individual usage (up 4, from No. 95 to No. 91); and business usage (up 4, from No. 47 to No. 43). 

Though there were no changes in rankings on government usage (No. 67) and social impacts (No. 76) and a marginal drop on infrastructure and digital content (down 5, No. 84 to No. 89), the Philippines still managed to raise its scores on all ten pillars and continue its positive trend.

In the last three years, perceptions on government procurement of advanced technology products (No. 85, up 43) and impacts of ICTs on new organizational models (No. 28, up 49) have picked up dramatically. While challenges still remain, especially in the number of procedures (No. 144) and days (No. 120) to start a business, the government has already recognized the role of ICT in its development agenda and is working on reforms to create a more enabling environment for innovation. In the proposed national budget for 2014, P2.5 billion has been allocated to the E-Government Fund, which will be used to finance strategic ICT projects in public finance management, education, health, justice, peace and order, transport, land use, open government/open data, climate change, and citizen frontline delivery services.

Increased networked readiness through better ICT is expected to “improve government transparency and efficiency” and create new employment opportunities. These initiatives can drive the country upward from the middle-third of competitiveness rankings to its target of the top-third. 

Guillermo M. Luz

Co-Chairman, Private Sector

gm [dot] luz [at] competitive [dot] org [dot] ph