MACTAN, Cebu — And now it’s down to three.
Myanmar recently became the latest ASEAN member country to install its own ICT department as announced by its ICT Minister during the 12th ASEAN Telecommunications Minister (TelMin) Conference here on Thursday, leaving only Laos, Cambodia and the Philippines as the remaining three countries without a cabinet-level ICT agency.
The formal announcement was made by Myanmar’s U Thein Tun during his speech as the outgoing ASEAN TelMin chair.
“Effective November 9, Myanmar’s ICT agency’s name has been changed from Ministry of Communications, Posts and Telegraph to Ministry of Communications and Information Technology,” Tun told an audience composed of ICT and telecommunications leaders from various ASEAN nations.
The announcement was met with hushed surprise from some of the delegates, with one Philippine executive even exclaiming: “Napag-iwanan na tayo ng Myanmar!” (The Philippines is already trailing behind Myanmar!)
Once isolated by decades of military rule, Myanmar is slowly transitioning into a burgeoning democracy, marked by the gradual opening of the country to global trade and the recent release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in 2010.
Newly reelected US President Barack Obama is also scheduled to visit Myanmar this week as part of a three-country ASEAN tour, the first ever US head of state to do so.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, representing President Benigno Aquino III during the conference, said as of the moment the administration sees no need to establish a separate Department of ICT since the Department of Science and Technology is capable of handling the country’s ICT affair.
“Kapag nagtatag ka kasi ng bagong departamento (When we create a new department), it means new budget, new employees, new offices. But in the mean time, where we are, kaya pa naman ng present department iyong (the current department is still able [to provide]) demands ng ICT,” Binay told reporters at the sidelines of the meet.
The vice president, however, added that eventually the country may need to have its own central ICT agency: “Bukas makalawa siguro, kapag ang pangangailangan ay dumating ay magtatayo din tayo ng sariling Department of ICT.”
In past interviews, Malacañang has reiterated that a DICT will only “bloat bureaucracy,” with the DOST formally withdrawing support for the agency’s creation after supporting it a few years back.
In earlier reports, sources at the ICTO have noted that the usual backers of the DICT in the industry have turned lukewarm following the promise of funding from the newly created ICT office.
“They don’t want to risk losing that support,” the source said. “Sure, the DICT is a bigger name and could possibly get bigger appropriations, but it would still boil down to who would eventually be sitting at the helm of the DICT.”
Earlier, House Committee on ICT Chairman Sigfrido Tinga, one of the key proponents of the DICT bill that had already passed in both houses of Congress, noted how Malacañang sees the DICT as an “unnecessary bureaucracy” whose functions can already be performed by the ICTO.
“We are at a point in time when people see it’s important but don’t think it’s the end all and be all,” Tinga said, underscoring the wide gulf separating the legislative and executive branches of government in terms of their respective ICT goals for the country.
For the Information and Communications Technology Office, however, everything is business as usual, as they prepare to promote the next-wave cities of the Philippines, a project pioneered by the now-defunct CICT.
While the Congress bill seeking to create the DICT has already been passed by both chambers, bicameral conferences to consolidate both versions of the bill is still at a standstill, presumably due to Aquino’s lukewarm perception toward its creation.
source: interaksyon.com