Time for a Generation Shift
By Michael Alan Hamlin
February 2003

I don't know anyone who doesn't agree that India's Nasscom - an Internet portal that acts as a door to India and its ICT and ICT-enabled sectors run by the National Association of Software and Service Companies - has played a fundamentally important and effective role in promoting the country and its non-traditional sectors. And everyone agrees that this is such a good thing that the Philippines should emulate the site and push its own story out to investors, contractors, and direct clients.

And that's where things get difficult. Nasscom considers its principal role to be close coordination with the government in developing a national IT policy. Ironically, the Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (ITECC) here in the Philippines actually goes a step further, at least in a way. It incorporates both the public and private sectors. And its principal task is to assist and coordinate the development of a national IT policy.

Indeed, ITECC is a brilliant idea in my view, but it has been hampered in its work in a number of ways. First, there's no funding. A good many bright ideas are discussed in the committees and sub-committees but they are left on the table to be forgotten. As a result, ITECC at the moment is little more than an information sharing body, where people come together and update each other on progress in their sectors. Occasionally, there is a presentation by someone or someones pushing a specific agenda, such as Rosetta Net, an association that is pushing a certain set of e-commerce standards. An endorsement by ITECC, the association believes, will legitimize its particular set of standards.

The Business Development Committee did play an important role in coordinating interviews conducted by Gartner Research in the formulation of its very positive and well-received report on the local ICT and ICT-enabled sectors in the Philippines. However, the actual research work was underwritten by the Makati Business Club. Neither the government nor ITECC had the resources necessary to attract Gartner's attention.

The second problem is that too many organizations are trying to do the same things. For instance, ITECC's Business Development Committee is also responsible for promoting the ICT and ICT-enabled service sectors. But so too is the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI) and the DTI-attached investment promotions agency, the Board of Investment. Again, neither agency has much money. To make things even more confusing, a not-for-profit foundation, Digital Philippines, also sees itself as an ICT and ICT-enabled services sector promoter. It was set up by Roberto R. Romulo, a former secretary of foreign affairs and current advisor to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Digital Philippines' board and membership is dominated by large local conglomerates and representatives of multinational technology firms.

While the effort by Digital Philippines to selflessly promote the Philippines should be appreciated, I have to wonder if it wouldn't be better to pool all these resources into one body that could actually undertake a real promotional effort. There are other reasons not to have so many ICT and ICT-enabled services sectors champions: It's confusing. Not only is it confusing to those of us here, it must be hugely confusing to investors, contractors, and clients who actually do want to do business in the Philippines. Who are they supposed to talk to, really? Can any of these organizations actually help them?

At the moment, the answer to that question is the same one it was before ITECC and Digital Philippines were conceived: DTI and BOI. The work that does get done by Digital Philippines appears to be mostly conceptual and redundant. It consists primarily of studies that throw out, for the most part, information provided in the study by Gartner Research, as well as other research organizations. Worse, I attended the presentation of one half-baked study that bizarrely concluded that hardware sales is driving ICT growth in the Philippines! More to the point, as one colleague recently observed, we've got plenty of studies. We need someone to do something."

Apparently, however, we don't have enough organizations that want to promote the Philippines in the view of the movers and shakers. Last December Romulo and Henry Schumacher, the executive director of the European Chamber of Commerce, jointly convened a meeting of representatives of the ICT and ICT-enabled services sectors to generate a consensus for developing - you guessed it - a Nasscom-like portal for the Philippines. Again, I would think that what we need is for someone to fully develop one of the sites we have: 1) DTI; 2) BOI; 3) ITECC; 4) Digital Philippines. I don't really see the need for a fifth half-baked site to add to the confusion.

And, we're getting into a bad habit here. ITECC is supposed to do a site and doesn't; Digital Philippines says it will do a site and doesn't; now, a Nasscom wannabe is next in line. Will this ever end?

That's actually a great question, and I naturally have some ideas about what it will take to actually get somewhere. Actually, I have just one very important idea. The others are self-apparent. The IDEA is that we need younger people involved. All these organizations are headed by people - like me - who either have lots of white hair, grey beards, or camouflaged variants. And frankly, we're all out of fresh ideas. That's not our role. Our role is to counsel, guide, and stay out of the way. It is not to lead the development of the ICT and ICT-enabled services sectors. That's a job for young people. After all, they are the beneficiaries, they should do the work.

The best thing about the time I've spent on the ITECC Business Development Committee is getting to know some of these young people, which our enlightened co-chair, Mark Javier, has wisely brought into the committee. They are a very exciting bunch, and some of them have already done great work bringing their sectors together, from contact centers to medical transcription. Now, it's time to let them do the same thing with a Nasscom-like association of all ICT and ICT-enabled services sectors.

So, old guys, let's stop being hurdles to development. We need to get these guys the resources they require to get started, and then let them worry about carrying on.

(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing Asian Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001). Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).

Copyright © 2003 Michael Alan Hamlin. All Rights Reserved.

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