President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. believes that the country's digital connectivity "is still pretty low" but the Philippines is not faring "too badly off" compared to its neighboring countries.
Saying the Philippine connectivity stands at 70 percent, which for him is "not good enough," Marcos said the government and its partners could do so much better.
"That is a priority and that is why as I said at the very start, it is impossible to overstate the importance of connectivity, of the telcos, of all of our new technologies over the internet... Whatever the system is appropriate, we need to explore it and we need to apply it," he said at the Telco Summit in Pasay City on Tuesday.
"So these are the elements that we are having to deal with. These are the options that we are choosing from. But we have to move quickly," he added.
In saying the government already made efforts to advance the digital economy, the President cited some projects that were already initiated.
These included the BroadBand ng Masa Program, the Free Wi-Fi for All Program, the Zamboanga-Basilan Wireless Broadband Network and the establishment of the National Government Data Center.
"It is the goal of this administration to build a truly Digital Philippines, which is why we are doubling our efforts to reach the most remote parts of the country by providing access to mobile cellular services and wi-fi," he said.
"These are just some of the projects that we are undertaking to make our people more adaptable and connected, especially in this age of what we have come to call the new normal," he added.