Villar backs development of digital economy

MANILA, Philippines — The government and the private sector must work together to break down all the barriers and challenges to developing the country’s digital economy, Sen. Cynthia Villar said over the weekend.

Speaking at the 9th Summit of the Philippines Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) Cebu Chapter, Villar cited a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development report that in many least developed countries, consumers and businesses have not capitalized on pandemic-induced e-commerce opportunities due to persistent barriers.

“These include costly internet or broadband services, overreliance on cash, lack of consumers’ trust, poor digital skills among the population and governments’ limited attention to e-commerce,” said Villar during the summit at Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City on Saturday.

“These are the barriers that need to be broken,” she said, noting that the summit’s theme, “Break Barriers through Innovation,” was timely and relevant since the country is recovering from the pandemic and exerting effort to rebuild the economy.

She cited PICPA’s current direction of thriving amidst the challenges faced by the accounting profession. These include the intensified use of smart technologies, the increasing regulations, and continual globalization tending to disrupt the typical way of doing work.

PICPA, she said, acknowledges that the way to adapt to these hurdles is by learning to innovate to rebuild capacities and work efficiency.

“I believe that you are on the right track. You see, as the country recovers from the pandemic, innovation has never been more urgent. The opportunities for it and the benefits to be derived from it, have never been greater,” Villar said.