Philippines Responding to the Challenge of the Digitized Society Janette Toral Philippine Internet Commerce Society DigitalFilipino.com.

Philippines Responding to the Challenge of the Digitized

Society

Janette Toral

Philippine Internet Commerce Society

DigitalFilipino.com

The Philippines?

The Philippines?• Strategic geographical

location, time zone allows 24 hour work shift

• Strong government and industry support

• Competing to become the preferred location for global outsourced service provision

• Excellent US track record

The Filipino

• Majority of the population speaks English, almost everyone can understand English

• English is one of 2 official languages• English is medium of instruction from

primary level up to post-graduate level• Educational system was originally set up

by the US government, and continues to follow the US system

Source: Manila Standard, July 14, 2000

RP As World’s Top IT Source

[REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8792]

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR THE RECOGNITION AND USEOF ELECTRONIC COMMERCIAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL

TRANSACTIONS, PENALTIES FOR UNLAWFUL USE THEREOF, AND OTHER PENALTIES

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives

of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1 Short Title. - This Act shall be known and cited as the “Electronic Commerce Act.”

Salient features

• legal recognition of electronic documents, electronic data messages, and electronic signatures;

• guidelines for retention and storage of documents in electronic form;

• recognition and validity of electronic contracts; • guidelines for use of transport documents in

carriage of goods; • a 2-year mandate for government to have the

capability to transact its business electronically;

Salient features

• the directive for the Department of Trade and Industry to function as the country’s e-commerce authority;

• the penalties to crimes such as hacking, cracking, and piracy offenses;

• made banking transactions done through ATM switching networks absolute once consummated;

• parties are given the right to choose the type and level of security methods that suit their needs;

Salient features

• mandates RPWeb, a strategy that intends to connect all government offices to the Internet and provide universal access to the general public, to be implemented;

• made cable, broadcast, and wireless physical infrastructure within the activity of telecommunications;

• provided guidelines as to when a service provider can be liable;

• all existing laws such as the Consumer Act of the Philippines also applies to e-commerce transactions.

E-Government

• E-Filing– Create, accept, and retain electronic documents.

• E-Permit– Accept application and issue permits, licenses,

etc. in electronic form

• E-Payment– Accept payment and issue receipts in electronic

form.

E-Government

• Technology Neutrality• Interoperability• Community Impact

– Elimination of Red Tape

– Relevance to its constituency

• Security Measures• Sustainability• Application Usability

E-Filing

• E-Reklamo• SSSText and SSS Web Online Inquiry• TIN Verification System• Phil-JobNet• B2BPriceNow.com• Passport Direct• University of the Philippines – Open University• SEC iRegister

E-Payment

• SSSNet

• SSS Auto-Debit Arrangement

• Electronic Filing and Payment System

• E-Census

E-Commerce in the Philippines

• 7 Internet payment gateways

• 7 major B2B portals

• Maturing B2C sites (around 10)

• E-Travel growing

• E-Banking (6 leading)

• E-Learning gaining acceptance

e-Commerce Challenges

• Need to develop higher-end skills in e-commerce

• Need to develop more local expertise in e-commerce security

• Need for more banking reforms.

Internet Situation

• Close to 1000 local websites having its own top-level domain name.

• Varying figures on the number of Internet users. – Our estimate is at 3.5 million this year. Includes school,

office, and Internet café users

• 191 Internet Service Providers• 5 Internet Data Centers• 363 National Government Agencies Online.

• Dubbed as the text messaging capital of the world. Over 200 million SMS sent through the country's mobile networks everyday.

• 13 million mobile phone users.

• Filipinos have become more emotionally attached to the mobile communication device.

Philippines’ Wireless Situation

The Power of Wireless

• Wireless technologies has helped bridged the digital divide in the country.

• Made Filipinos technology appreciative and created opportunities for young developers.

Four challenges moving forward Too much SMS! New vs. Current

Technologies The Telcos Walled Garden

Approach Expansion outside the

Philippines

Outsourcing Initiatives

• E-Services Hub of Asia– Software Development– Call Center– Medical Transcription– Shared Services/Back-Office– Animation

IT-enabled Services

The Philippines is significant destination for outsource service operations from – United States– Japan – Europe

• large pool of educated English-speaking and culturally adaptable workers

• lower cost of doing business in the Philippines • large time zone difference from the US and

European markets

Knowledge Workers

• skilled labor force of 29 million– 350,000 yearly university graduates– 25,000 get ICT-related degrees– 100,000 get degrees in commerce or

business administration

• need to upgrade the level of education and training to make them more responsive to the current needs of industry

Networks of Computer Colleges

• large network of private ICT training centers and technical colleges – The Philippines is the second among Asian countries

in terms of the largest number of training facilities for computer programming and computer-related courses.

Challenges:• Need to upgrade teaching standards• Need to invest more on faculty

development• Need for academic exchange programs

Technical Skills Development Authority (TESDA)

• Medium level to lower level skills in IT• Large network of affiliate technical colleges

Challenges• Need to make their programs more attractive to

better quality students• Need to establish a good tract record in getting its

IT graduates employed.

Open Source Software Development

• Promotion of Open Source paradigm

• more training programs in Linux and PosgreSQL

• actively develop open source solutions for the government

IT Skills Building in Schools

• IT Literacy at both the elementary school and high school levels

• Improvement of Curricula for IT at elementary school and high school levels

• Java Training Program for students in select High Schools • More high schools as CISCO Networking Local

Academies

Challenge• Training of High School Teachers

Content Development

Need for more content for

• Urban Poor

• Farmers

• Fisherfolks

• Tribal Filipinos

Need for more content in

• Tagalog• Cebuano• Ilongo• Ilocano• Other Filipino

languages

Bridging the Digital Divide

Areas of Focus• Human Resources Development• Infrastructure Development• Computer Literacy for Development• Information Technology and e-Commerce

for Development• Content and Technology for the Less

Privileged

Bridging the Digital Divide

• need to implement projects that would bring practical benefits to the wider segments of the population

• need to ensure that opportunities created by the new economy are properly taken advantage of. – distance education

– content creation

– appropriate technology development

Human Capacity Building

• Virtual Center for Technology Innovation in Information Technology

• PCs for High School Project

• APEC E-Commerce Skills Standards Project workshop

• Philippine Schools Cyberfair Project

PCs for High School Project

• This Department of Trade and Industry project intends to equip 1000 public high schools nationwide with computers, printers, and modem that the teachers and students can use.

• There are 7509 high schools nationwide. 4336 are public or government-run.

Philippine Schools Cyberfair Project

• On its 2nd year, this PICS project intends to recognize elementary and high school institutions that produces a website that tells a story about people or programs in their local community.

Virtual Center for Technology Innovation in Information

Technology (VCTI-IT)

Project funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)

• Training and Certification Program• e-Learning• IT Innovation

Certification ProgramCertification Program

From consultations and surveys (ITFP, IT business sector etc..), three major courses for certification have been identified:

computer networking database systems Internet software development

Based on this, the following certification programs have been included:

Cisco Certified Networking Associate (CCNA)Oracle Certified Professional (OCP)Sun Certification for Java Programmer (SCJP)Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP)C++ Programming

UML XML

APEC Tel E-Commerce Skills Standards Project

• An initiative that takes into consideration the valuable work already undertaken by the APEC itself and related APEC fora in the area of e-commerce.

• The development of human capital is one of the highest priorities identified by the APEC leaders in helping to achieve the key aim in APEC of liberalizing trade in goods and services.


• Knowledge Management (8 standards)• Software Development (20 standards)• Website Development and Maintenance (23

standards)• Order Fulfillment (9 standards)• Marketing (6 standards)• Networking Technologies (12 standards)• Outsourcing (4 standards)• Project Management (3 standards)


• Knowledge Management– APEC EC SS 114 – Design a physical database– APEC EC SS 119 – Build a database– APEC EC SS 110 – Develop a data warehouse– APEC EC SS 137 – Model data objects– APEC EC SS 138 – Model data processes– APEC EC SS 154 – Monitor and maintain knowledge

management system– APEC EC SS 173 – Administer a database– APEC EC SS 181 – Undertake database backup and

recovery


• Software Development– APEC EC SS 125 – Establish and document business

requirements– APEC EC SS 116 – Implement process re-engineering

plan– APEC EC SS 120 – Plan and implement quality assurance

process– APEC EC SS 127 – Implement risk management processes– APEC EC SS 141 – Develop Input/ output requirements

based on business needs– APEC EC SS 147 – Maintain information standards


• Software Development– APEC EC SS 153 – Prepare technical documentation– APEC EC SS 152 – Manage the testing process– APEC EC SS 165 – Manage online inventory– APEC EC SS 157 – Develop configuration management

processes– APEC EC SS 158 – Implement quality assurance process– APEC EC SS 149 – Compile and run an application– APEC EC SS 150 – Write and compile code based on

requirements


• Software Development– APEC EC SS 101 – Decide on suitable developers for e-

business projects– APEC EC SS 151 – Write program modules– APEC EC SS 156 – Develop detailed test plan– APEC EC SS 112– Write utility programs– APEC EC SS 179 – Prepare on-line user’s manual– APEC EC SS 180 – Prepare Software Development Plan– APEC EC SS 183 – Develop process needs based on

business requirements


• Website– APEC EC SS 102 – Optimise web site performance– APEC EC SS 116 – Implement process re-engineering plan– APEC EC SS 120 – Plan and implement quality assurance

process– APEC EC SS 111 – Build dynamic webpages– APEC EC SS 115 – Design data driven websites– APEC EC SS 117 – Develop content and navigation

structure for websites – APEC EC SS 121 – Ensure data driven website security– APEC EC SS 122 – Ensure secure data encryption


• Website– APEC EC SS 123 – Ensure site usability– APEC EC SS 124 – Ensure authentication occurs within

system– APEC EC SS 133 – Create Java applets– APEC EC SS 134 – Build a Graphical User Interface (GUI)– APEC EC SS 135 – Develop guidelines for loading

information to a web site– APEC EC SS 136 – Manage an e-business website– APEC EC SS 139 – Monitor site traffic– APEC EC SS 142 – Use site server tools


• Website– APEC EC SS 143 – Perform operational acceptance tests of

web sites– APEC EC SS 145 – Ensure good database website

connectivity– APEC EC SS 146 – Ensure website content meets

appropriate standards– APEC EC SS 155 – Accurately assign meta-tags– APEC EC SS 109 – Write a Common Gateway Interface

(CGI) script– APEC EC SS 175 – Manage online communities– APEC EC SS 179 – Prepare on-line user’s manual


• Order Fulfilment– APEC EC SS 165 – Manage online inventory– APEC EC SS 164 – Manage online purchasing– APEC EC SS 166 – Manage an e-business supply chain– APEC EC SS 160 – Maintain online records– APEC EC SS 107 – Install and configure payment facility– APEC EC SS 167 – Manage online sales– APEC EC SS 168 – Manage online payments– APEC EC SS 174 – Manage after sale customer support– APEC EC SS 177 – Plan after sale customer support


• Marketing– APEC EC SS 169 – Plan e-marketing

– APEC EC SS 170 – Conduct e-marketing

– APEC EC SS 175 – Manage online communities

– APEC EC SS 176 – Manage on-line customer survey

– APEC EC SS 177 – Plan after sale customer support

– APEC EC SS 178 – Prepare a technical presentation


• Networking– APEC EC SS 103 – Build network security– APEC EC SS 104 – Build and configure a server– APEC EC SS 128 – Install a router– APEC EC SS 113– Deploy a server– APEC EC SS 129 – Install and configure router– APEC EC SS 131 – Install network hub– APEC EC SS 132 – Install network bridges/ switches– APEC EC SS 139 – Monitor site traffic– APEC EC SS 142 – Use site server tools– APEC EC SS 143 – Perform operational acceptance tests of web

sites


• Networking– APEC EC SS 148 – Create code for network

connectivity– APEC EC SS 157 – Develop configuration

management processes


• Outsourcing– APEC EC SS 161 – Implement outsourcing

arrangements – APEC EC SS 162 – Manage outsourcing

arrangements– APEC EC SS 171 – Develop outsourcing

policy and guidelines– APEC EC SS 101 – Decide on suitable

developers for e-business projects


• Project Management– APEC EC SS 101 – Decide on suitable

developers for e-business projects– APEC EC SS 106 – Implement change

management– APEC EC SS 140 – Plan process re-

engineering strategies


• Once finished, the project is likely to produce the following benefits for participating economies:– Access to internationally approved e-commerce skill standards

that can inform strategies and curriculum development for e-commerce education and training in member economies;

– The development of effective relationships to support e-commerce education and training information and cultural exchange between APEC economies; and

– The initial development and implementation support for participating economies to help integrate e-commerce skills standards into education and training systems of member economies where required.

E-Commerce As Catalyst forPoverty Alleviation and Economic Prosperity

Thank you

• Janette Toral

• http://www.digitalfilipino.com

• Email: [email protected]

Philippines Responding to the Challenge of the Digitized Society Janette Toral Philippine Internet Commerce Society DigitalFilipino.com.

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