MANILA, Philippines–Eleven local and foreign business groups have pressed lawmakers to pass a long-overdue bill that will mandate the creation of a Department of Information and Communications Technology to raise the priority of ICT and improve national competitiveness.

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In a letter to Senate President Franklin Drilon and Senator Ralph G. Recto, chair of the committee on science and technology, the business chambers pointed out that having a DICT would make the Philippines at par with the rest of the world where 80 percent of all countries have separate departments, ministries or agencies for ICT.

In the Asean alone, six countries—Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—have a cabinet-level agency for ICT.

“Furthermore, DICT will raise the priority of ICT in the country to a higher level, improve e-governance, raise broadband quality, help strengthen our cyber security and improve national competitiveness,” the groups stressed.

They also pointed out that the Philippine ranking in the United Nations E-government Development Index has dropped sharply since 2003 and was now rated 95 out of 193 economies.

A 2014 rating of broadband speed showed the Philippines at 3.6 megabit per second (mbps); while that in Indonesia stood at 4.1 mbps; Malaysia, 5.5 mbps; Cambodia, 5.7 mbps; Vietnam 13.1 mbps; Thailand, 17.7 mbps, and the United States, 22.3 mbps.

“As a country, the Philippines lacks adequate infrastructure and competition to support the newest smart phones, which are rapidly replacing feature mobile phones, and provide faster broadband at low prices,” they added.

The local and foreign business groups argued that the DICT would bring together and focus disparate agencies and units with ICT-related mandates that were already budgeted without adding another layer to the bureaucracy.

“There is hardly a part of society and the economy that is not touched by ICT, either directly or indirectly. ICT is cross-cutting and an enabling tool.”

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