By MADELAINE B. MIRAFLOR
Even if almost everyone is now on social media, a survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that of about 3,648 companies in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Sector and Media Sector, only 39.9 percent has social media account.
That is based on the 2017 Survey on Information and Communication Technology (SICT) conducted by the PSA, which was just recently revealed on Wednesday.
2017 SICT is a rider survey to the 2017 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) and aims to collect and generate information on the availability, distribution and access/utilization of ICT among establishments in the country.
The ASPBI, on the other hand, is one of the designated statistical activities of PSA. Data collected from the survey provide information on the levels, structure, performance, and trends of economic activities of the formal sector in the entire country in 2017.
The survey was conducted nationwide in 2018 with 2017 as the reference period of data.
The survey results were revealed during the Data Dissemination Forum held on Wednesday. With the theme “Providing Quality Statistics for Informed Decision-Making and Better Policies,” the forum also highlighted ASPBI result.
During the event, Arnelyn Abdon, strategy, economics and research group director at the Department of Finance (DOF), said timely and credible data is foundation of effective policies in the country.
"We rely on data rather than resorting to personal opinion and shouting," Abdon said.
According to her, the result of the SICT will help the DOF understand how firms interact with technology in the conduct of their businesses and inform "our policy makers in particular as we pursue digital transformation in tax administration to provide better services to all our taxpayers."
The SICT results also showed that of the 3,648 companies, only 41.4 to 50.8 percent have website.