PH to receive at least $8 million in cyber assistance
By Robina Asido
The Philippines will receive at least eight million dollars worth of financial support during its first trilateral cyber dialogue with the United States and Japan in Singapore next week, an official of the Department of Information and Technology (DICT) said Thursday.
In an interview with the Daily Manila Shimbun at the Philippines Critical Information Infrastructures Protection (CIIP) Summit, Information and Communications Technology Undersecretary Jeffrey Ian Dy said the agenda for the trilateral dialogue includes collaboration in capacity building, collaboration in information sharing between its computer emergency response teams and collaboration in promoting open and secure ICT infrastructures.
"I think the US and Japan have also pledged financial support in piloting Open RAN in certain areas in the country and we'll be discussing that as well. How do we operationalize that grant that they're offering?," he said.
"They're also offering financial support for capacity building programs for cyber security professionals in the country. So those are also the things that will be discussed," he added.
Dy said "the Open Ran is approximately 8 million US dollars" while he explained that the fund for the capacity building "will go to their (US-Japan) local partners" in the Philippines like in the form of US aid programs for US and in the form of JICA programs for Japan.
"We're also discussing helping our National Security Operations Center with the partnership regarding providing technology to help our National Security Operations Center. So that's what's on the agenda," he said.
In his speech during the summit, Embassy of Japan in the Philippines Minister of Economic Affairs Nihei Daisuke said the three countries are expected to further explore cyber cooperation in the trilateral dialogue.
"Rest assured that we will continue to contribute to the enhancement of cybersecurity capabilities in the Philippines includes cooperation with the DICT, highlighting the importance of synergy in facing present day challenges together, Japan, the Philippines and the United States are looking forward to holding the first trilateral cyber and digital dialogue to explore additional cooperation among the three countries," he said.
Dy said the trilateral meeting will be held at the sidelines of the Singapore International Cybersecurity Week.
He added that the trilateral dialogue is "a follow-up meeting on the Philippines and United States earlier commitments for cooperation in cybersecurity.
"Last July, we had the US-Philippine Cybersecurity dialogue. And this time, with Japan, we're going to have a trilateral meeting, also in the sidelines, we have an ASEAN-India cybersecurity meeting a s well next week. So this is now the internationalization of cybersecurity in practice," he added. Robina Asido/DMS
