Marcos confident vision of ''world-class and tech-savvy country will come to fruition''
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed confidence that the country's "vision of becoming a world-class and tech-savvy country will come to fruition" as he led the inauguration of the UnionBank Innovation Campus in Laguna on Friday.
During the event, Marcos said the track record of UnionBank in creating opportunities through innovation and digital solutions in the banking sector is uncontested as he noted that "the opening of the UnionBank Innovation Campus shall intensify our collective efforts to bring our banking and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industries into the future."
"With you as our partner in this endeavor, I am very confident that our vision of becoming a world-class and tech-savvy country will come to fruition, especially if we focus on the tasks at hand, we have aligned our goals, and we continue to be aware of all the fast-moving developments in technology out there, so we as a people, we as an economy, can take full advantage of those new technologies," he said.
"Rest assured this administration is committed to working closely with you, with other stakeholders in the banking and ICT industry, especially as it redounds to the benefit of our people," he added.
In his speech, Marcos stressed the importance of the newly inaugurated campus in the government's participation in the "new digital world."
"The initiatives that we have, such as UnionBank is doing with this campus, that we have just inaugurated today, are precisely the kind of innovations, the kind of forward thinking, operations, and actions that we will need, not only in the private sector, but also in the public sector, so that we in government can be participants in the new digital world, wherein we are living in more and more in our day-to-day lives," he said.
"Not only is it a viable way of doing business, it is the only way that we will be doing business in the years to come and therefore, we cannot allow the Philippines to get left behind," he added.
Marcos said "one of the UBIC’s objectives is to foster greater partnership between the public and private sectors under the Advancing Government ICT Innovation, Leadership, and Excellence or AGILE Program".
"This will not just bring digital banking services to our local government units, but will also enhance other digitization initiatives in government," he said.
"This initiative perfectly fits into the three-year Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which promotes digitalization of payments towards furthering financial inclusion," he added.
Marcos said the BSP roadmap aims to convert at least 50 percent of the total retail transaction volume into digital form, and the onboarding of 70 percent of Filipino adults to the formal financial system by next year, 2023.
The president also noted that these initiatives will not only improve the business position of UnionBank but it will also increase the economic activities in the country.
"It will increase the economic activity that we in government, we in the bureaucracy will be able to process, will be able to handle and it will make it easier, for not only big corporations, but ordinary citizens, who generally are not included in the digital world as of now, to now be included and to take advantage of all the conveniences, all of the efficiencies, and all of the new products that will come out of these new technologies," said Marcos.
"In our shared success to make the disbursement of social benefits and other assistance to the public smoother, I look forward to the next milestone in our collaborations, which is ensuring financial inclusion through digital technology," he said.
"This will provide effective access to a wider range of financial services for all Filipinos, especially the vulnerable sectors," he added.
To sustain growth and promote new advances in this sector, Marcos expressed hope that UnionBank "will explore the limitless possibilities, and take advantage of the many bright ideas that our experts have, so that we can generate more jobs and secure our nation’s economic revitalization."
"As tomorrow dawns and leads to brighter days ahead, let us renew our commitment to improve our present state and make lives better and more comfortable for everyone with the help of the technology that we know is now available to us," he said.
"Together, let us combine our abilities towards this resurgence of all our industries that were deeply affected by the current pandemic and other global challenges," he added. Robina Asido/DMS
