Globe: Policy reforms key to attracting tech investors
Globe Telecom Inc. is asking the new administration to “implement policy changes” in the industry to attract more investments in the country’s digital infrastructure.
Ernest L. Cu, the company’s president, said digital platforms and services will act as a key driver of economic growth and recovery in the coming years.
“We know that economic recovery is foremost in the minds of government and private sector alike, and this can be fast-tracked through connectivity and the widespread availability of first-world internet services,” he said.
Globe, Cu noted, has been implementing intensive network builds in support of the country’s recovery from the pandemic. However, it also asked support for the push to remove persistent bureaucratic roadblocks to techdriven development.
Among policy impediments to pursue digitalization is lacking legislation requiring property developers to allocate space for telco and other ICT infrastructure in their developments, Cu said.
Both houses have failed to pass this in the last Congress. Cu expects the measure “to be resurrected with the start of the new session.”
The proposal aims to address challenges that telcos confront in deploying cellular and broadband fiber connectivity facilities in residential areas.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has been vocal about his advocacies towards digital transformation. He recently appointed tech expert and lawyer Ivan John Enrile uy as the secretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
Cu also hopes for the speedy rollout of the National ID system to ensure SIM registration is backed by expansive availability of legitimate IDS to enable proper counter checks.
Apart from reforms in the telco industry, Cu said Globe is also pushing for the revision of the implementing rules and regulations of the EPIRA law to lower the threshold on energy use so businesses may avail of options in energy sources, among them renewables.
This, he said, will allow businesses, from large corporations to MSMES, to use renewable energy for smaller infrastructure, including those consuming between 10 and 99 kwh.
“We continue to enhance our digital solutions platform in support of the new administration’s digitalization goals. The Globe Group offers an incomparable suite of services in the digital space, from fintech and healthtech to edutech, adtech and many more, which address Filipinos’ digitalization needs,” Cu said.
In the first quarter of the year, Globe built 234 more cell sites, upgraded over 3,500 mobile sites, and installed 380 new 5G sites, leading to an increase in ultra fast 5G mobile connectivity in more areas nationwide.
Globe has set an P89-billion capital expenditures program for 2022.