DENNIS Anthony H. Uy, chief executive officer and co-founder of listed fiber internet provider ICT Solutions, Inc., said he hopes to build a “tech city” in Pampanga in the next three to four years.

“I’m looking at building a tech city to give back to my hometown, because I’m from Pampanga,” Mr. Uy said during a fireside chat with the Nordic Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines on Wednesday.

“The Philippines has so many talented people. If you go to Silicon Valley, you will see a lot of Filipinos there. They are really good in terms of technology,” he said, noting that the Philippines still has to develop an ecosystem that will offer opportunities to digitally skilled Filipinos.

The Philippines is a “perfect” location as a digital hub serving its neighbors in Southeast Asia, he said.

“The Philippines, geographical location-wise, is in the middle of Asia, and what is happening now, if you can see the trade war between China and the US, you can see the benefit… The Philippines should be a digital hub.”

“It’s my passion to make this happen, hopefully three to four years down the road,” Mr. Uy said further.

The Philippines placed 58th out of 64 economies in IMD business school’s World Digital Competitiveness Ranking 2021, after falling to 57th place in 2020 from 55th a year earlier.

The country retained the 13th spot among the 14 Asia-Pacific economies measured.

The Philippines fell three spots to 57th in the future readiness pillar after poorer performance in adaptive attitudes, business agility, and information technology integration.

It also dropped by one place in the technology pillar after a decline in capital, and it sank by one spot in the knowledge pillar as its training and education rank fell.

Converge ICT shares closed 0.30% lower at P32.85 apiece on Thursday. — Arjay L. Balinbin

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