Keynote Speech of DTI Secretary Mar Roxas

Opening Session of the First e-ASEAN Task Force Meeting

March 2, 2000, Shangri-La Hotel

Thank you very much to Bobby Romulo for your very kind and warm and gracious exaggerations about that aspects of my life. Bobby and I, as well as our families, have been very dear friends for many many years, indeed generations. And so his words I take partly as hyperbole and likewise a thank you for your kind regards. Excellencies (of the) diplomatic corps, as well as fellow colleagues in public service, our delegates to this conference, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I'm very happy to be given this opportunity to address you this morning on the opening session

of this very very important conference. Indeed, it is my first official function after having been confirmed by our Commission on Appointments here in the Philippines. I now must be quite careful unlike my previous life when I was a legislator and so therefore cloaked with parliamentary immunity. And in utterance and any documents now signed in the executive branch is a potential case for the ombudsperson in our country, so it is in that context that I now render this remark. It is also noteworthy, I certainly took note of it, that all of the ingredients present in today's conference, at least in the topics that you will be discussing over the next several days, are the very same ingredients that comprise the biggest challenges and opportunities that we have for us in the Philippines as well as for all of us in the region. Information, communication technologies, IT, e-commerce, ASEAN, all of these ingredients, that will make us succeed or fail as we confront these challenges that are upon us. ASEAN because we need to be able to work together. We in the Philippines recognize that , as many as we are, certainly we are not of substantial size to be able to determine very much, or in much way influence the course of events, particularly as it relates to information technology. So, indeed, the importance of being able to work together. IT and e-commerce, again as all of you already know, is a great area of promise for all of us to be able to address the very same challenges or be it in a different battlefield. Challenges of finding income for our people, the challenges of providing them opportunity, challenges of being able to uplift them with their present state to a much higher level of accomplishment. And, different battlefield, principally because of the very nature of the internet, the very nature of e-commerce, the very nature of the technology. Indeed, change is not so much the challenge that we confront it is the pace of change and as Mr. Romulo's remarks alluded to earlier, it is the fact that nobody can really say in what direction or in what way all of these changes will come about. It is that we have to try and find them together, so that we will be competitive and will be key players in this new age. For us in the Philippines, we look upon the electronic age with great deal of anticipation. With a great deal of, a sense of, challenge. We feel that we are very much suited to be able to participate very well in this new age. Our education, our facility with English, our cosmopolitan outlook, our ability to adapt to different, particularly western ways, of doing business are principal tools that we will have as we are able to navigate through this time period. Needless to say, Bobby's remarks, also will be very much a factor in the way we look upon our own competitiveness, our own participation in this new age. The one lesson that I have learned in all my years in the private sector and even including the last six years in government sector, is that money only has one imperative, which is replication. In this context, replication is best suited in those areas were there is stability of policy environment. Measure of predictability, a consistency in what governments and private sectors do in terms of determining what it is, or what directions they will undertake in this brave new age. The principles that we will be espousing, we, in the Department of Trade and Industry, and certainly in cooperation with the Philippine delegation in this e-ASEAN conference, will be that the private sector, indeed, should lead. Perhaps, one way of looking at Philippines' success, so far, in this area, is that very few in government truly understand it. And so, therefore, have not intervened or have not put themselves across into this area. It is for that reason that, again, we are able to be much more enthusiastic, much more aggressive in our thinking, as to the Philippines' role, the country's abilities to be successful in this new age. We also look upon this from the perspective of three levels of policy determination as well as advisory. Global, from the perspective of standards and technologies that are in use, as well as trade policy issues and responses to WTO on market access and trade logistics, as well as tariffs on products that are traded in this area. National, with respect to our own e-commerce policy and strategy including the legal and tax issues that are necessary to be put in place so that there could be a flowering, a blossoming in this new trade area. And, the business enterprise, with respect to access, trust, and security versus fraud as well as the stability of contracts and guarantees. In the Philippines, there are several efforts that are being undertaken to do this. I am sure for each of the representatives of other countries similar efforts are also being undertaken. First of all, we have the E-Commerce Promotion Council, which is created about a year ago, whose activities seemed to be somewhat limited. A government body created to be able to respond to a new challenge and yet still finding its way creating the very bureaucracy that perhaps is not needed in this new age. There's a National Information Technology Council (NITC) creating a National Information Technology Plan. Again, this Plan was put together by various sectors in the government and the private sector here in the Philippines. It serves as the primary IT advisory body to our President. There is a Board of Investments' IT program providing incentives to IT practitioners and likewise being able to provide this through consultation with the private sector. There's an Economic Mobilization Group's Special Action Team (EMG-SAT) that's been put together on the internet, on e-commerce, and again very close coordination as between the private sector and government. There's a National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) initiative, for strategic policy study for software, information/communication technology services sector in the Philippines. From the very title alone, it seems like there'll be a greater government intervention, at least from the way the bureaucrats have put them together. I think the key element in all of this is for us in the DTI, certainly we will be having a meeting on the 6th of March to be able to bring together all of the Secretariats, all of the leaders of all of these bodies. So that we can come up with a comprehensive action plan, comprehensive coordination as among all of these efforts so we don't run over each other. In our own legislature, there are several bills, at the Senate and the House of Representatives , whose features will be to provide the stable policy environment, particularly with respect to electronic signatures, stability of contracts, stability of agreements, reached through the wire, so to speak. And all of these are proceeding quite nicely, and the President already certified these measures to be part of his administration's priority. Certainly the legislatures are working on that, and we expect passage of these bills before the April break of the legislature. All of these measures are just by way of saying that we, perhaps, which like the other delegates here, are very much enthusiastic, are very much challenged by what it is that we confront. We look upon this as an opportunity for us. There really is no road map. There really is no set plan as to how to be successful in this new age. All we know is we have the ability to do so. We have the talents and the skills, and it's only a question of putting it together so that we can, indeed, find the jobs and the incomes that are necessary for our people. With those few remarks, I would like to welcome all the delegates here and express the support of the Department of Trade and Industry to this effort as well as the support of the entire Philippine government. We recognize that this is, again, a great opportunity for all of us to not have missed the boat in this time. Certainly, we'll do our best to be active participants in this conference. Thank you very much and good morning to all.