ICT Dept to boost IT-BPO industry –Angara

In an effort to boost the IT-BPO (information technology-business process outsourcing) industry, Senator Edgardo Angara said the bill creating a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) should be signed into law this year or in early 2013.

 

Angara, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, spoke at the opening of the 8th International Contact Center Conference and Expo at the SMX Convention Center, Mall of Asia in Pasay City on Sept. 17.

 

The senator also said that the industry has long been waiting for the creation of a separate department focusing on the information technology sector.

 

The IT-BPO industry generated $11 billion in revenues and employed approximately 640,000 people in 2011, according to reports.

 

According to an industry roadmap, the industry is seen to provide high-paying jobs to 1.3 million Filipino, and to become a $25-billion industry by 2016.

 

Meanwhile, according to Manila Standard Today, Science Secretary Mario Montejo was reported as saying that and ICT department may no longer be needed in an executive forum organized by the Management Association of the Philippines on Aug. 6.

 

Earlier reports also showed that creating an ICT department is not among President Benigno S. Aquino III’s priorities. (see related reports here and here.)

 

New ICT laws

 

Angara also said that the Philippine government made important ICT-related legislations this year.

 

"The Data Privacy Act and Cybercrime Prevention Act had already been signed into law. One more to go. I hope the government gets its acts together," said Angara.

 

Aquino signed Republic Act No. 10175 (RA 10175), or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, into law by on Sept. 12. Its signing closely followed the approval of RA 10173 or the Data Privacy Act, a law that requires the protection and preservation of personal data collected by public agencies and private organizations.

 

"We need that [DICT] for guidance of the industry. I hope it could be signed if not next month, next year," Angara said.

 

The senator also said that if that happens, the government could be credited for signing into law three very important bills for the IT-BPO industry.

 

House Bill 4667, the measure creating the DICT, was passed by the House late last year. Meanwhile, the Senate passed on the third and final reading in February Senate Bill 50. The industry had been waiting for the consolidation of the two bills. — Shaira Panela/TJD, GMA News