Silicon Valley Learning in the heart of Luzon Innovation campus rises
What do you get when you gather together a group of promising and talented students and dedicated educators, a top bank, thoughtleaders, innovators, and patriots? Inventive solutions to some of the world’s largest problems and transform a country into a center of innovation.
In the fourth quarter, the number one digital bank in the Philippines, Union Bank of the Philippines, and digital solutions company Yngen Holdings will formally launch the UnionBank Innovation Campus that will catapult the country into its “fully digital future.”
The Innovation Campus, which broke ground in May last year, will start in September, right on schedule. The campus is being hailed as a flagship project to promote innovative ideas and transform the Philippines into Asia’s next innovation hub.
“This campus will help revive San Pedro, Laguna,” stated Eugenio Ynion Jr., president, and CEO of Yngen Holdings. Ynion had always envisioned a venue to encourage startup incubators to link with entrepreneurs in an innovation hub.
“We want to emerge as a strong venue focused on outcome-driven initiatives, and it is well-positioned to back the global aspirations and ambitions of our startups,” Ynion added.
Edwin Bautista, president and CEO Edwin R. Bautista of UBP, said the lender would invest in initiatives supporting many Filipinos’ aspirations to make the country a technology center.
“This is a big step for us,” Bautista during the groundbreaking ceremony of the campus. “Even during these trying times, Union Bank continues to invest in innovations that could transform the Philippines into a major technology hub in Asia, with San Pedro (Laguna) the epicenter of artificial intelligence, blockchain, and data science in the region.”
The Union Bank Innovation Campus will provide a solid platform to boost the stature of the Philippines’ innovation ecosystem globally.
According to Union, the innovation campus also aims to bring together the majority of startup ecosystem stakeholders in the Asian region to create sustainable business models with a particular focus on nascent technologies, like blockchain, digital assets, artificial intelligence, Web 3.0, metaverse, insuretech, healthtech, fintech, gamification, and others.
The campus will also have an enhanced focus on capacity building and globalization with cross-border partnerships.
“Looking at the blueprint of what will become of this place in the next ten years, and looking back from 10 years ago when all you see here are mountains of illegally dumped waste, illegal activities, including drugs and abortion, gives us some satisfaction that we were able to transform a ‘dump’ into a center of hope,” he added.
The once center and image of physical and moral decay in that part of San Pedro, San Antonio, now offers an opportunity to become a symbol and the core of rapid development by advancing digital transformation for the country and the Asian region, Ynion added. According to UBP, one of the priorities of the campus will be the development of talent that will fuel its innovation initiatives. The facility will also serve as the bank’s satellite office in the Southern Greater Manila Area.
This is seen to benefit employees living nearby, giving them convenience in accessing their workplace and adding an operations hub to benefit customers in the area. The bank’s campus will be used for business continuity measures during disasters and other unforeseen events that might affect its operations.
UBP senior executive vice president and chief technology and operations officer Henry Rhoel R. Aguda said that Silicon Valley infrastructures inspired the project in January.
He said the campus would be home to data science, blockchain institutes, and an accelerator. Developments done on the campus are expected to benefit banking, fintech, and other industries.
“It will be home not only to highly talented individuals who will help the bank in creating solutions toward a fully digital future, but the UnionBank Innovation Campus will also be home to some of the best educators and mentors who will help mentees unlock their full potential as solutions thinkers,” the lender said. (Komfie Manalo)