VANCOUVER, Canada — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Friday (Saturday in Manila) that the Philippines is ready to advance the digital economy through partnership with Canada.
“As we continue to strengthen our economic ties, we look forward to working with our Canadian partners to transform opportunity into tangible investments, innovation and shared progress,” the president said during a roundtable with executives of information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) in Fairmont Pacific Rim, Vancouver.
He said the shared future of a robust digital economy will be catalyzed by the upcoming Philippine-Canada Free Trade Agreement, which aims to usher in more bilateral trade, strategic investment and seamless economic cooperation.
Marcos acknowledged that the IT-BPM sector was no longer a back office function as it is now a core driver of innovation, productivity and global value creation.
“Customer experience, analytics, cybersecurity, financial service support, health care information management and digital operations are now central to how global enterprises compete and how they grow,” the president said.
“This transformation is already evident in our engagement with Canadian companies,” he added.
The president cited the strong participation of Canadian firms in the Philippine IT-BPM landscape, supporting customer experience, insurance and financial services, enterprise software, software as a service, consulting and next generation digital operations.
“The Philippines has never lacked talent. What we are building are more opportunities for Filipino talent to compete and succeed on the global stage,” Marcos said in a Facebook post.
“Our discussions with Canadian technology leaders focused on expanding opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI), software engineering and digital innovation. By investing in the skills of our people, we are preparing the Filipino workforce to lead in the industries of tomorrow,” he added.
Among the companies represented in the discussion were Blackberry, CGI, Everise, ManuLife, OpenText, NQX, Sun Life, Telus Corp. and InTouchCX.
Marcos encouraged Telus to invest in the Philippines.
“With more than 24,000 Filipinos already driving AI, digital transformation and other high-value services for global clients, we will continue creating the conditions that allow our people to compete, innovate and succeed in the industries shaping the future,” he said.
