Five Ways to Transform Philippines into First-World Country through the Internet and Information Technology

There is a certain prestige associated with being a "First-World" or "Developed" country. As a first-world country, you are viewed as an independent economy and one that the rest of the world admires. Your citizens are highly valued in other countries, and those in developing nations aspire to move to your country to try to achieve the same things that your citizens have. There is a strong sense of national pride in the citizens of first-world economies. Sad to say, we Filipinos have yet to develop that level of pride in our nation.

History has shown that we as a nation are capable of developing a strong economy. In the 1960s, prior to the start of the Marcos regime, the Philippines was considered Asia's 2nd strongest economy after Japan. At the end of the Marcos era, the Philippines progressed into the 1990s and, like many nations in the Southeast Asian region, was considered a "tiger" economy. Unfortunately, in both eras, something came along that retarded our growth as a nation. In the 1960s it was cronyism of the Marcos era, and in the 1990s it was the Asian Financial Crisis.

So what will it take for the Philippines to accomplish first-world status? The whole world has just entered the cusp of a pivotal point in history. With the advent of the internet and with recent developments in the field of information technology, the Philippines is all of a sudden on an even playing field with the rest of the world. If in the 20th century wealth was determined by the amount of money you had, in the 21st century wealth is determined by the amount of information you have. Let's look at 5 ways that we as a nation can maximize our potential in this period of heightened globalization, specifically with the aim of developing into a first-world nation:

1. Strengthen the Philippine educational system

The Philippines needs to prioritize 2 things: first, reviving English as the medium of instruction at all levels of education; and second, strengthening the quality of information technology teaching across the country. In a global economy, the use of English is quite simply a requirement, as it is virtually impossible to compete on a global level if you cannot communicate effectively with your business partners. As for information technology, strides have been made to increase the quality of IT teaching the country, but we need to pick up the pace if we want to keep up with developing giants such as India and China.

2. Continue to develop the Business Process Outsourcing industry

At the turn of this decade, the BPO industry in the Philippines was a fledging industry that promised to bring high value jobs to the country at time when employment for highly skilled labor was only possible if you left the country and became an OFW. The BPO industry kept its word. An industry highly dependent on the latest technology and possible through advances in the internet, 200,000 people now work in BPOs across the country. By 2010, it is estimated that the BPO industry in the Philippines will employ close to 1 million Filipinos and will bring in $11 billion to the economy. This is comparable to the $14 billion in remittances that OFWs sent to the country in 2007.

3. Harness the talents of Overseas Filipino Workers through competitive domestic compensation packages

The rise in the number of OFWs leaving the Philippines to work internationally is both a boon and a bane to the country. Without the remittances of OFWs, the Philippine economy would virtually collapse, as 13.5% of the Philippine GDP is a result of these remittances. On the other hand, the constant departure of highly-skilled workers contributes to the country's brain drain, and thus perpetuating the country's cycle of not having enough talent to solve it's problems. If the OFWs were given incentives to stay within the country, primarily with the help of globally competitive compensation packages, more highly skilled workers could pursue their dreams without leaving the country.

4. Decentralize power and empower the provinces

The Philippines simply cannot continue to be Manila-centric. If we truly want to distribute the wealth evenly across the nation, we need to give more regions independence to create the necessary programs to alleviate poverty. Fortunately, this initiative has started. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently announced the creation of 5 "Super Regions", each with its own unique developmental focus, and each with increased executive and economic powers.

5. Never forget the past

Out of all the 5 steps, this may prove to be the most important. We cannot continue to ignore the lessons of history. We cannot allow dictators, dependence on other nations, lackluster economic planning or mediocre political management hamper our growth as a nation. While we must look forward towards our promising future, we cannot afford to ignore what stopped us in the past from getting there quicker. Our future depends on us not repeating our past.

We are already on the right path. Many of the things we need to do to become a prosperous nation, we have already started to do. Some people even consider the Philippines to already be a newly industrialized country. We cannot stress enough that in a global economy, and in a period of time where knowledge, not money, dictates who is or is not wealthy, we simply cannot afford to continue doing what we did in the past. Harnessing the power of the new technologies is the key to becoming a first-world country. Luckily, it seems that more and more Filipinos are beginning to realize and believe that such a goal is within our reach.