By Prince Golez
The Philippines can become a destination for digital innovation through available technological advancements and its young and talented workforce, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Monday.
“We have a very big advantage of that because again, paulit-ulit kong sinasabi but talagang totoo, it’s our workforce. Dahil bata ‘yung workforce natin, magaling tayo sa tech. Madali para sa atin ang technology at siguro with the talent that we already have in the Philippines, kaunting upskilling na lang and we will already be at the forefront of this technology,” Marcos Jr. said in a media interview in Hawaii.
“So that’s what we were able to explore and it just— it goes beyond just the application of technologies. It’s also how to open the markets to the different elements of the technology — the tech industry, such as the experts, the engineers, the coders, all of that,” he added.
The President said that he and his team learned a lot about how American planners in the tech industry think and what role the Philippines can play.
There were also commitments made for more detailed discussions, said Marcos Jr., emphasising that one of the most exciting things was the opening or centering of the market around the Philippines to make the country a technological hub.
He did, however, state that the country must overcome some obstacles and create an ecosystem that is very beneficial to start-ups, which, unfortunately, have a very high failure rate.
“Kasi kung technology ang pag-uusapan, kailangan bago lahat, kailangan ma-encourage natin ang mga start-ups. Ang problema sa start-ups, 95 percent of them fail but that’s the nature of the business,” the chief executive said.
“You have to have an ecosystem that can (counter) that failure rate because doon sa 5 percent na nag-succeed, ilan and unicorn d’yan. They will pull up the rest of the systems so that’s essentially what we spoke about. What are the new systems that we can put into play to make the Philippines a center of the emerging technologies.”
In the United States, Marcos Jr. said they met with some brilliant people who are very forward thinking and can help the Philippines with technology.
“Kaya nating gawin, because in terms of technology, hindi ito ‘yung smokestack industry that you have to have very large capital investments in, you have to buy very expensive machines, you have to have big production lines. Iba ito,” he said.
Addressing the security risks of artificial intelligence, the President said this new technology must be properly regulated and monitored in order to prevent it from being exploited by criminals, and used to disseminate fake news.
