Government and industry leaders from Singapore and Philippines created a new campaign called “Digital Pilipinas: A Closer Look At The Philippines Sandbox”, spearheaded by the Geiser Maclang firm, a movement that aims to influence change through technology and innovation across the local and global spheres.
Government officials from both countries, including Sopnendu Mohanty, Monetary Officer of Singapore (MAS) Chief Fintech Officer and Ramon Lopez, Department of Trade and Industry Secretary (DTI) and Carlos Dominguez, Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary both agreed and supported the campaign in transforming the Philippines to become a more technologically-capable and innovation-driven across the ASEAN region.
The said campaign is focused on 12 key points in providing solutions to overcome challenges with the Philippines industry and economic sector: : FINTECH, GOVTECH, REGTECH, PROPTECH, DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION, OVERSEAS FILIPINO BANKING, FUTURE OF MOBILITY, INSURETECH, E-COMMERCE, CYBER SECURITY, INTERNET OF ENERGY, FUTURE OF EDUCATION, DIGITAL CITIES AND GAMING.
“Innovations are being spearheaded in the sandbox of Asia. We need to do more than just raise our innovation quotient as a country and as a people to remain competitive. More importantly, we need to demand a technology and innovation quotient from our future leaders”, according to Amor Maclang, Digital Pilipinas Co-Convenor and GeiserMaclang Marketing Communications Inc., Co-Founder in her welcome remarks.
DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said that the government is already making ways to push further digitalization in the country even before the pandemic..
Further, DOF Secretary Carlos Dominguez said that the Philippine economy needs to adapt to modern technologies to remain more operational and he also added that, “The Philippine government encouraged the rapid rise of FinTech in our country, and our revenue agencies have fully embraced digitalization.”
A panel discussion was also held during the event led by Global Impact FinTech (GIFT) Co-Founder and Chairman Malik Kotadia with the theme, “A Whole of Nation, Whole of Society Approach for Technology And Innovation”.
Malik was joined by notable persons like Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Director Ace Alvaro, DTI Asec. Mary Jean Pacheco, ASEAN Financial Innovation Network Director Pieter Franken, and Overseas Filipino Bank President and CEO Leila Martin.
Further, two (2) segments of fireside chat were held and the first segment was led by Maclang and FinTech Philippines Trustee Ida Tiongson where they gathered innovation market leaders in an engaging discussion about how they are dealing with industry issues and challenges and how they are pushing boundaries through tech.
They were joined by Robertson “Dick” Chiang, Dragonpay President; MYNT Chief Customer Officer Winsley Bangit; Insular Life First Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Gwendolyn Kelley; KPMG in the Philippines Head of Cybersecurity and IT Advisory Jallain Manrique; Union Bank of the Philippines Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Technology and Operations Officer Henry Aguda; Tier One Entertainment Chief Executive Officer Tryke Gutierrez.
Meanwhile, the second segment was moderated by best-selling Filipino NFT artist and NFT63 Co-Founder Luis Buenaventura about the emerging voices in the tech industry. Luis was joined by Angkas Chief Transport Advocate George Royeca; The Bow Tie Duck Co-founder Julien Marie; Kimstore Founder and CEO Kim Lato; Locad CEO and Co-Founder Constantin Robertz; Philippines Coding Camp President Gabriel Avelino ‘Gino’ Sampedro; UNObank CEO and Co-Founder manish Bhai; 8Ventures Chairman and CEO Jay Ricky Villarante; and Xendit Philippines Managing Director Yang Yang Zhang.
Digital Pilipinas campaign is a multi-month series of activities which will culminate on November 11-12, 2021 at the World FinTech Festival Philippines where top tech leaders will gather inside the country to share their own insights on trends on how organizations will become much stronger in the new normal.
Check out www.digitalpilipinas.ph for more information.