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Arroyo hails international ICT conference organizers
by Roberto M. Cabardo

Cebu City (23 June 2005) -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo congratulated the organizers of the 1st International Conference and Exhibition on Business and Information and Communication Technology held in the Mediterranean Room of the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel yesterday.

The President, who declared June as ICT Month, considered the ICT Congress as the centerpiece of the celebration. She also cited that for Filipinos, ICT means "jobs for our young people, a tool for mass education, and an instrument for good governance."

Likewise, she also reported that in the last four years of her administration, the ICT industry has created thousands of jobs. "In the first six months this year, the industry had already created 40 thousand jobs," she said.

Speaking to a thousand delegates from here and abroad, the President reiterated her goal of making the Philippines as global center for outsourcing and have quality citizens who are software developers, medical transcriptionists, call center agents and other ICT related workers.

To achieve this, according to her, means facing the second phase of her economic reform program that includes dealing with the shocking effect of the latest oil price hike, political bickerings, and graft and corruption. To recall, the passage of tax legislations in congress and other revenue generating initiatives are part of the first phase of PGMA's economic reforms.

Although she paid the political price of all the economic reforms she has done, the President appealed to the public to help the government's fight against corruption, prosecution of tax cases, investigation and dismissal of government workers who failed in the lifestyle check, and customs reforms.

Before ending her twenty-minute speech, Arroyo stressed the need for Filipinos to unite in facing the "daunting challenges of the second phase" of her economic reforms.

Welcoming Pres. Arroyo were Commission on ICT Chair Virgilio Peña, Cebu ICT Chair Bonifacio Belen, DTI Sec. Juan Santos, Gov. Gwen Garcia, CCCI Pres. Robert Go, and other officials like Francis Monera, and Wilson Ng. Also present were Sec. Cerge Remonde, and DOE Sec. Rafael Lotilla.

Other Areas of PGMA Visit in Cebu
After speaking in the 1st ICT Conference, Pres. Arroyo flew to Badian, a town in southwestern Cebu, for a ceremonial switch-on that would complete Kepco's Electrification of 202 barangays under the Adopt-a-Barangay Electrification Project in Tayong Elementary School.

Aside from this, the President is scheduled to grace the launching of Chi Spa Village, the so-called biggest spa in the country, located in Shangri-la Mactan Island Resort later today. (PIA 7)

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