Digital technology helps achieve financial security

EVERYTHING is on the Internet. Almost all you need is provided for by the digital world. Even in planning your financial resources –what and how to engage in profitable and sustainable investment and make your savings safer can now be provided through financial solutions or applications being offered online.

Indeed, digital technology helps achieve financial inclusion for every Filipino planning a better future or every citizen of the world of the same goal.

You consider this in every step you make to plan your future and surely you can come up with an effective measure to achieve financial stability. You only have to seek advise from financial advisers who are always ready to assist you in planning your finances based on your goals.

Financial institutions are now offering segmentized financial programs or product solutions intended for overseas Filipino workers, the plain housewives, employees and even the millennials based on their priorities.

This is apparently the same reasons that prompted financial institutions all over the globe to come up with various programs to assist its citizens plan their financial resources. Each is coming up with various measures to ensure financial security, especially during retirement age. Who doesn’t want financial stability and live in comfort after retirement?

This worldwide campaign stemmed from the fact that only a few percentage of the world population is engaged in financial planning or have known about what financial literacy.

In fact, even in First World countries, like the USA, is actively engaging in making its citizens aware of what financial literacy is all about.

Based on 2016 survey conducted by RBC Wealth Management-US and City National Bank, 87 percent of Americans want financial literacy to be part of the curriculum being taught in school. The survey also found out that 15 percent of those in favor to incorporate financial literacy in the classroom want the subject to start as early as elementary. Seventytwo percent, on the other hand, want it taught in high school.

“Having a basic understanding of how money, investing and our broader financial system works is critical in our society today. Yet there is a growing realization, particularly in the wake of the last financial crisis, that many people don’t understand budgeting, investing or how simple financial products like loans

work,” Tom Sagissor, president of RBC Wealth Management-US said in a report published by the financial institution.

In the Philippines, the campaign for financial stability appeared to have been given attention not only by the private sector , but by the government as well.

Take, for instance, the Department of Finance’s initiative to come up with a massive campaign to promote e-commerce among Filipinos, especially those in the countrysides.

This campaign is apparently in line with the immense and rapid developments in the field of digital finance, which according to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez not only enhances payments systems and remittance processing across all platforms, but will also make it possible for emerging economies like the Philippines to attain financial inclusion for its citizens.

With this in mind, Dominguez said he looks forward to learning more about e-commerce for rural communities and emerging new business models.

And this was made possible by new technologies introduced during the three-day New Economy Workshop organized by the Alibaba Business School, an institution focusing on implementing Alibaba Group’s e-commerce training system and empowering leaders and entrepreneurs across the globe with knowledge and insights on how to succeed in today’s digital era.

Government officials taking part in the workshop expressed gratitude to Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma for “pulling out all the stops” in setting up a comprehensive series of lectures tailor-made for the Philippine setting.

“As a finance professional, I am profoundly impressed by the immense technological progress achieved in the field of digital finance. That progress not only enhances payments systems and improved remittance processing, they make possible a more inclusive financial system,” Dominguez said in his remarks at the opening of the workshop set in China.

“I am sure these advances will help us make our economic development more inclusive. All Filipinos will benefit from the information and insight we expect to gain over the next few days,” Dominguez noted.

The New Economy Workshop for Philippine officials is the first overseas government training program organized by the Alibaba Business School. (For full story visit www.sunstar.com.ph/ davao/)