9 July, 2018- Manila, Philippines – The Internet Society, a global non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet announced today announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Philippines’ Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to guide the development of the country’s National ICT Ecosystem Framework (NIEF) 2022.
The NIEF –a successor to the Philippine Digital Strategy initiative from 2011-2016– will serve as a roadmap for the management, and development of national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) data in the country’s plans, programmes, and projects. This initiative underscores the DICT’s commitment to helping the nation access information and communication technologies to promote innovation and development of the ICT sector.
Approximately 67 million people are connected to the Internet in the Philippines, making ICT a key area of development. The government has focused its efforts on stimulating industry competition with the selection of a New Major Player (NMP) in the Public Telecommunications Market, aided by policies that lower interconnection rates, establish domestic roaming and promote infrastructure sharing.
The National ICT Ecosystem Framework 2022 aims to achieve an environment that includes integrated planning and policy measures to encourage different parties to use ICT collaboratively while promoting accessibility, security and the sustainability.
“DICT’s several plans and programs make up the pieces of the puzzle that NIEF 2022 intends to put together. This multi-stakeholder approach allows different actors to interact in synergy, aimed at increasing the country’s rankings in terms of ICT use and development,” said Eliseo Rio Jr, Acting Secretary, DICT.
Together with Internet Society, DICT will adopt the multistakeholder approach for the development of the Framework, which includes conducting public consultations to engage with various sectors throughout the year. Subsequent projects and activities under these areas will also be planned using the same multistakeholder approach.
“Just as the Internet is open, interconnected and transnational, the multistakeholder approach gathers individuals and organisations from different sectors to share ideas that contribute to policy development, explains Rajnesh Singh, Regional Bureau Director for Asia Pacific, Internet Society. “This collaborative process encourages inclusivity and a wide variety of inputs that produce well informed outputs for effective implementation.”
“The ICT environment is constantly evolving and different stakeholders are affected by specific issues. A collaborative approach is essential and the DICT is leading the way in this bottom-up approach,” said Singh.
About the Internet Society
Founded by Internet pioneers, the Internet Society (ISOC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet. Working through a global community of chapters and members, the Internet Society collaborates with a broad range of groups to promote the technologies that keep the Internet safe and secure, and advocates for policies that enable universal access. The Internet Society is also the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
About DICT
The DICT was established by virtue of Republic Act 10844, mandated to be the primary policy-making, planning, coordinating, implementing and administrative body of the Philippine government, as well as to promote and develop the nation’s ICT, ensure universal access to quality, affordable, reliable and secure ICT services, and promote the application of ICT to improve public service delivery in the fields of education, public health and safety, revenue generation and socio-civic purposes.
Media Contact:
Allesandra deSantillana
Internet Society
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