Cebu adopts Silicon Valley development strategy

STORY FROM BUSINESSWORLD CEBU CITY -- The government, private sector and academe here have adopted the Silicon Valley model to make Cebu province a globally competitive destination for information and communication technology (ICT) investments and ensure that benefits from ICT endeavors trickle down to the poor in the countryside. Representatives from these fields will formulate a five-year development blueprint that will build the four pillars of the Silicon Valley model, identify the stakeholders who will spearhead resource mobilization and form an organization that will draft operational plans. The four pillars are the creation of an innovation ecosystem, promotion of a culture for technology entrepreneurship, provision for critical mass of quality professionals and practitioners and availability of legal and financial framework. Work on the five-year plan started with the recent launching of the 2nd Cebu ICT Strategy Summit and identification of stakeholders who will take part in online focus group discussions corresponding to the four pillars. The Cebu provincial government also held the inaugural meeting of the Cebu Provincial ICT Council. Other convenors are the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for IT and the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry. A study tour to Silicon Valley will also be held before the actual summit in May. Caesar Atienza, a member of the newly formed ICT council, said the body was established to ensure that benefits from ICT will trickle down to all people in Cebu province, especially in the countrysides. "The province is now pushing for ICT so that it becomes real to the farmer in Argao or the fisherman in Pinamungahan. The governor is concerned that those in the rural areas would be left behind. We would want to see ICT as an enabler of countryside development and ensure a balanced development for Cebu," he said. Mr. Atienza, who played a key role in the 1st Cebu ICT Summit in March 2001, said the first summit positioned Cebu as an ICT destination. The second summit will focus on bringing ICT benefits to the masses. "Now that these [ICT organizations] have been formed, what is critical now is to make the different sectors [of the ICT industry] work together," said council member Joaquin Quintos IV, IBM Philippines general manager. Mr. Quintos is one of five private sector representatives to the council. Others are Smart president Napoleon Nazareno, CCCI President Francis Monera, Andoni Aboitiz of the Aboitiz Group and Wilson Ng of Cebu-based business solutions provider Ng Khai Development Corporation. - Marites S. Villamor/BusinessWorld