• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The House committee on information and communications technology (ICT) has approved the substitute bill seeking to establish ICT hubs nationwide as proposed by Negros Occidental Third District Rep. Jose Francisco Benitez.
The proposed measure mandates the Department of Information and Communications Technology to prepare a National ICT Plan, which will assess the needs of every province and identify the number of hubs to be developed there.
Benitez, who chairs the Technical Working Group that prepared the substitute bill, consolidating 10 bills, said it will enable digital transformation in the countryside.
In a statement, the lawmaker said that the bill will provide facilities for digital learning, cybersecurity systems, and co-working space for digital and creative startups.
Under the bill, every province shall have at least one ICT hub based on the type of activity it hosts — from data farms to IT and business process management, cyberskills learning hub and digital transformation center, and digital innovation hub, among others.
“ICT hubs shall be developed in geographically equitable locations throughout the province,” the bill stated.
“Any registered business enterprise in the ICT hub may be granted incentives, according to the performance-based, targeted, time-bound and transparent incentives program under the CREATE law,” it added. | GB
