The Manila Hotel, City of Manila
October 26, 2022

Aiming to push for an effective implementation of e-governance in the Philippines to improve the country’s ranking of 89 out of over 193 in the United Nations E-Government Survey for 2022 – a survey that assessed the digital government landscape across Member States – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. graced the opening of the National Information and Communications Technology (NICT) Summit 2022 at the Manila Hotel.

“This assessment of our performance is, at the very least, worrying. We experienced a regression…But clearly we will do better: Our ICT professionals are among the best in the field and Filipinos are among the most tech-savvy in the world. There is, essentially, nothing holding us back except ourselves. This summit is therefore correct and apt and timely for what we will discuss here will be instrumental not only in improving our global standing, but also in securing the Philippines’ place in the future,” President Marcos Jr. stated in his message.

With the theme, ‘Toward a Citizen-Centric, Inclusive, and Sustainable eGovernance Ecosystem’ with the associated hashtag ‘#BuildBetterMore’, the Chief Executive expressed optimism that the two-day Summit would yield actionable proposals and a cohesive public-private collaboration that would optimize opportunities provided by the ICT for nation-building.

He stressed that there is nothing holding government back from adopting innovations and technologies employed by the private sector to deliver faster results and perform better in its tasks.

“To achieve this end, we are committed to realize the vision of a Digital Philippines. We will achieve this by enhancing the country’s digital infrastructure, improving the regulatory framework for innovation, ensuring cybersecurity, and developing the country’s digital workforce, among others. The government will also facilitate the swift passage of the E-Governance and E-Government bills,” the President added.

Traditionally held in June every year in observance of the National ICT Month, the National Information and Communications Technology Summit 2022 was moved to October due to the nationwide elections in May and to give way for the assumption into office of the country’s elected and appointed officials. It takes on a hybrid format wherein participants are given the option to engage either online or in-person from October 26-27, 2022.

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