Philippines: PBBM’s digital transformation plans could pave the way for a global blockchain hub

Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr., commonly referred to as Bongbong Marcos or PBBM for short, has shared a national digital transformation plan that signals the country could become a global hub for digital assets.

In his first ever State of the Nation Address (SONA), the President stated that his government wants to integrate cutting-edge technologies into all aspects of daily life in the Philippines as part of efforts to digitize the Southeast Asian country.

Ground-breaking technologies in areas such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, the Internet of Things, robotics, self-driving electric vehicles, 3D printing and Virtual and Augmented Reality will radically transform the way business is done. he said.

Marcos specifically plans to sign several bills that will open the country to these innovations, including blockchain technology that it has been exploring. He revealed that the E-Governance Act, Internet Transactions Act and tax reforms to accommodate digital service providers are among his top priorities.

The E-Governance Act will mandate the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) “to identify and use these innovations to improve governance” and create an “E-Government Masterplan.”

The bill will allow the government to start its e-identity project, which aims to issue 20 million digital and 30 million physical IDs by the end of 2022.

The bill will also allow for the digitization of public services and the harmonization of medical records. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer report, this could greatly leverage blockchain technology and digital assets.

The Philippines is likely to deepen its exploration of blockchain technology use cases

In particular, the Philippines has already been on a digital transformation path. One technology that has caught the attention of several government parastatals has been blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT).

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) recently launched an in-house blockchain training program to explore DLT use cases in financial aid, emergency relief, healthcare, passport and visa issuance, government record keeping, and trademark registration.

Similarly, the Philippines Port Authority began using blockchain technology for use in managing logistics records of the operations of several key ports.

Meanwhile, the central bank and the electricity market operator say they are studying blockchain technology to improve financial market infrastructure and peer-to-peer energy trading, respectively. In addition, the country has been working on its digital central bank currency (CBDC). In an interview with CoinGeek, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Assistant Governor Edna Villa, there is a positive response from state banks and large commercial banks to join the pilot project.

See: BSV Global Blockchain Convention panel, Blockchain for Digital Transformation of Nations

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