Philippines is top ‘digital riser’ in East Asia and the Pacific —report

MANILA,Philippines — The Philippines has been named the top “digital riser” in East Asia and the Pacific by the European Center for Digital Competitiveness (ECDC).

ECDC’s Digital Riser Report analyzes and ranks the changes in digital competitiveness of nations in the last three years based on “digital ecosystem and mindset.”

“The Philippines’ outperformance can mainly be explained by its ‘Innovate Start-up Act’ lighthouse initiative, which was passed in 2019 to strengthen, promote and develop an innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem and culture,” the report published on Sept. 11 stated.

“Further beneficial initiatives include the introduction of start-up visas and public-private partnership initiatives, such as the ‘Start-up Venture Fund’ in 2019, which matched investments from investors in local start-ups under certain conditions,” the report further said. 

President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Innovative Startup Act in April last year which created the Startup Development Program or simply referred to as the “Program.”

The “Program” is composed of benefits, incentives for startups and startup enablers to support the development of small enterprises.

“This just proves that we are now reaping the fruits of the government’s digitalization efforts,” Department of Information and Communications Technology Secretary Gregorio Honasan said in a statement on Thursday. 

Apart from the Philippines, France and Saudi Arabia were also named digital risers by the ECDC.

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