CICT kicks off “PC in every home” campaign

The Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) is now working with computer manufacturers to jumpstart the campaign on providing affordable PCs in the Philippines.

CICT chairman Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua said the commission is initially working with Intel, and other technology gadget makers to provide affordable PCs to the Philippines, that could be pegged to as low P10,000.

Roxas-Chua said this is the government’s initial blow on the long term goal of spreading the usage of technology, eventually to hit the “one-PC-one-person” target.

As the cost of technology goes down to the affordability of the mainstream market, Roxas-Chua said there is a huge possibility that majority of Filipinos will be given access to technology usage.

At this time, Roxas-Chua admitted that the Philippines has to work aggressively on addressing the very low penetration rate of PC usage, and thus CICT hopes to partner with more IT giant companies, to push the affordability of PC and software prices across the country.

Earlier, ICT vendors in the Philippines were calling the attention of the government to address the low PC penetration in the country.

Wesley Ngo, director for Computer Manufacturers, Distributors and Dealers Association in the Philippines (Comddap) said that the Philippines is lagging behind other ASEAN countries in terms of computer usage penetration rate.

Although, prices of Personal Computer (PC), including notebooks are going down, there is still a huge number of Filipinos who are deprived of taking advantage of technology mainly due to price issues, Ngo said.

Roxas-Chua said that there is a lot of work to do not only in the government’s side, but also from the private sector in addressing this problem

Roxas-Chua said the government and the private sector should work closely to make this campaign work. — Ehda M. Dagooc