House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Speaker’s office)


How about a digital public infrastructure partnership composed of the Philippines, the United States (US), and India? House Speaker Martin Romualdez came up with this idea follwing his attendance to the Digital Public Infrastructure Lecture on Saturday, April 15 (Philippine time) at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington D.C. in the United States (US). On the sidelines of the lecture, Romualdez, Leyte's 1st district representative in Philippine Congress, had a brief chat with Nandan Nilekani, one of the founders of Indian multinational information technology company Infosys. “I think it is very important for the Philippines, India, and the US to lead in this digital public infrastructure initiative because nations have much to gain from this,” Romualdez said. The US and India are two of the world's biggest economies. The Filipino official said building public digital platforms “is very much aligned with the campaign promise of President Ferdinand [Bongbong] Marcos Jr. to speed up the country’s digital transformation". “This is the reason why the House of Representatives has passed the E-Governance/E-Government Bill, which seeks to shift the entire bureaucracy to the digital space for faster and transparent delivery of services, and for better engagement with the public,” he said. Digital public infrastructure is defined as infrastructure that allows people to engage in public and civic life in digital space. It is funded mostly by the government and taxpayers. It is not profit-oriented, unlike privately owned digital platforms that rake in billions mostly from advertising. "Digitalization will definitely prove to be the panacea to the economic problems left behind by Covid-19," Romualdez, president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), stressed. The lecture was part of the World Bank (WB)-IMF Spring Meetings.