The country can still recover lost ground and accelerate growth to catch up with its aspiration to end poverty and be a predominantly middle-class society under the Ambisyon 2040 through frontier technologies, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) said.
PCCI President Amb. Benedicto V. Yujuico said this would be made possible following the rolled out its partnership with tech giant Huawei to provide students and the workforce accessible opportunities to learn about frontier technologies.
Already, the country’s largest business organization has launched a three-prong program. The first was the PCCI-Huawei ICT Academy, the official program that will deliver industry-recognized Huawei Certification courses to students. Through a webinar, two training programs were introduced - Huawei Mobile Services (HMS), which covers app development, and Huawei ICT Academy, which covers competencies in Networking, Cloud Systems, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Both training programs offered to educational institutions free of charge as a corporate social responsibility project of both PCCI and Huawei.
Students who will undergo the training and successfully pass the assessment will receive a Huawei certificate recognized worldwide as well as a PCCI Chamber certificate.
Yujuico, who set up the PCCI Innovation Center said better connectivity will help PCCI achieve its goal of educating young people and the country’s workforce in advance technology such as in Artificial Intelligence, Cloud, Mobile App Development, Blockchain and Robotics. These technologies can only be learned and applied if one has access to digital technology.
“These technologies will play a big role in meeting the needs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and in responding to the challenge of ensuring sustainability to achieve Ambisyon 2040,” Yujuico ended.
Highlighting the importance of innovation through technology to realize the vision of Ambisyon 2040, Yujuico said, “We have to leapfrog into adopting technology such as robotics, AI and Cloud in our operations. Our economic growth has been set back by several years. We can still recover lost grounds and accelerate the growth of critical sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, BPO, construction, logistics, education, and even improve government services and ease and lessen the cost of doing business if our local firms and our young people have a technology mindset and we are able to equip our workers with the skills and tools needed to operate frontier technologies.”
Also boosting innovation is the recently signed Executive Order (EO) 127 by President Duterte liberalizing access to satellite technology through inclusive access to satellite services.
The PCCI, which has batted for the amendment of EO 467 of 1997 to remove the franchise requirement in the access of international satellite systems, said the signing of EO 127 will help to address the needs of unserved and underserved areas in the country.
“With its archipelagic structure, satellite broadband is the fastest and most reliable means to improve connectivity and internet access across the country,” Yujuico said adding, “The signing of the EO has made possible access for millions of Filipinos, particularly the connection of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and remote services for students, education and health institutions in the countrysides, as well as far-flung municipalities and local government units.”
Improved internet access is also seen to fuel the country’s innovation ecosystem.
“Improved connectivity means our people can now access life-enhancing information and services around the clock, and this fuels innovation activity,” Yujuico emphasized.
Continuous investment in the ICT skills of Filipino students and the reskilling and upskilling of the workforce is important now more than ever as the country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. This was expressed in a statement of PCCI Technology and Innovation Committee Director Perry Ferrer as he shared the importance of the PCCI-Huawei partnership as the country moves forward.
“Our edge in ASEAN and Asia is our demographic dividend. We should be able to utilize this to our advantage by prioritizing education that enhances the creative and innovative capacities of young people in ways that are not only relevant to employability but to more advance machinery that are required by industries to rebound strongly and to be more competitive,” Ferrer said.
Ferrer cited that the courses and training programs offered in the PCCI-Huawei partnership are based on industry standards and industry needs which assures educational institutions that skills to be learned by the students are relevant and timely.
The PCCI-Huawei Academe training is implemented through PCCI’s Human Resources Development Foundation Inc. headed by Dr. Alberto P. Fenix, Jr.
PCCI is expected to rollout the training program in select educational institutions in close coordination with its local chambers. The next PCCI–Huawei webinar is scheduled on March 29. It will discuss how the partnership will benefit the country’s industries and businesses especially the MSMEs.