press release - Bridging Other Divides

Another press release from my friends over at the NCC:

"Bridging the digital divide is just the means to bridge other divides confronting our society today," says Secretary Virgilio L. Pe�, Chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT).

Addressing the participants of the Philippine Summit on the Information Society (PSIS) at the Manila Hotel last September 9, 2005, Pe� said that divides are common in many countries. Among those he mentioned were the divides concerning the economy, society, education, generation, gender and marginalized people.

He added that if we are to transcend into an Information Society, where vast opportunities are available for everyone, we should start to address how to bridge these different divides.

An example which he mentioned is the economic divide, which exists in every society. For ICT to meet this divide in our country, Community Electronic Centers (CeCs) are being set up in barangays. The CeCs will allow ordinary people to access various useful information from the Internet. The challenge in meeting the digital divide is in motivating the rural folks to go to the CeCs and to train them to use the computers, with ease and facility.

Pe� said that the answer in bridging the digital divide is not just installing computers and connecting them to the Internet, but in focusing on how ICT could be used in the flagship programs of the government.

As CICT chairman, he said that the Commission has developed its long-term strategy towards an e-enabled society. And this is in the areas of easy access to the Internet, human capital development, information infrastructure development, government service and world-class competitiveness.

Pe� emphasized that CICT is focusing more, not just in developing the use of ICT in the country, but in helping the nation move towards being an Information Society.

The recently-held PSIS was the culmination of the series of seminar-workshops held this year in the cities of Manila, Cebu and Davao. These are all in preparation for the country's participation in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis on November 2005, where the Philippines will present its position on Internet Governance.***