Day 1 - the Philippines study visit

[Laurentiu Bunescu]

Warm greetings from Manila to all!

As the first day of my study visit has come to an end, I am now looking back at the inspirational discussions and meetings throughout the day.

In the morning, Tess Camba (Head of the CeC programme) and Cheryl Ortega (Group Head for Minandao operations) have picked me up from the hotel and we went to the CICT headquarters, where we’ve been welcomed by Lilian Botor (PhilCecNet).

First of all, we looked over the study visit agenda again and made sure that all of us understood it correctly.

Then, Cheryl and Tess briefed me about the CICT and PhilCecNet.
CICT (Commission on Information and Communications Technology) is basically the primary ICT policy, coordinating, implementing and administrative entity. One of the CICT main priorities is the Community eCenters (CeC) programme which strives to improve the quality of life through the use of affordable, appropriate and critical ICT-enabled systems.

PhilCecNet (Philippine Community eCenter Network) represents a multisectoral partner of CICT in the implementation of the Philippine CeC programme. PhilCecNet has recently acquired legal entity for being able to implement the CeC roadmap. CeC roadmap has become the bible of the network, being a result of a consultative bottom-up process that involved grassroots organizations as well as stakeholders. The roadmap is a 3-year strategy that has already been provided with funds for implementation, through the national eGovernment Fund administered by CICT.

PhliCecNet is a network of more than 700 centers throughout the country that was born in 2006 from a need to harmonize efforts of various CeC initiatives, to share knowledge and expertise.
PhilCecNet represents an interesting and attractive model of multisectoral partnership, involving government, ICT private sector, academic sector, media, NGOs, CeC managers and users.

It’s a model that assures sustainability on the long term, offering centers the confidence and the support they need to encourage efficient and qualitative services within communities.
The briefing about CICT and PhilCecNet continued with a short presentation of the Philippine CeC Academy. Tomorrow I will meet the Chair of the Academy and will write more about their activities and services.

After lunch, I had the pleasure and the opportunity to meet with the CICT Chair – Anthony Roxas-Chua, and with the CICT Commissioner for eGovernment, Angelo Diaz de Rivera. I have briefed them both about Telecentre-Europe and we have talked about what is the purpose of my visit and the wish to develop a future partnership between our networks. I would like to thank Tess, Cheryl and Lilian for arranging these meetings and the entire itinerary.

The last part of the day was marked by a presentation of Telecentre-Europe.

This is a short summary of today’s discussion, but there’s a lot more information that will be available soon, so watch this space!

[Gabi Barna]

Sounds that your visit is going very well. It sure is great to hear that you are learning about the Phillipines experience and PhilCecnet. Looking forward to hearing and learning more about their operations, which will no doubt enable us in Europe to better build our telecentre.
community.