Microsoft Philippines National Agenda: Harnessing Skills for Global Competitiveness

John Bessey is the Managing Director of Microsoft Philippines, a position he has held since October 2009.
 
When Microsoft first sat down to discuss what role technology can have to help the Philippines grow we were struck by the clear direction  the Aquino administration saw for the country – namely inclusive economic growth, and increased transparency. The “Five Priority Areas” as per 2012 Budget of the government are:

1.       Transparent, accountable and participatory governance
2.       Poverty reduction and empowerment of the poor and vulnerable
3.       Rapid, inclusive and sustained economic growth
4.       Just and lasting peace and the rule of law
5.       Integrity of the environment and climate change adaptation and mitigation

To shape our thoughts my team and I took time to review, amongst other sources, the World Economic Forum (WEF) global competitiveness index and analyse the trends over the past few years. We noticed in the last year the Philippines to progress up in the rankings, from 85 to 75 (out of 142) with a positive trend in transparency. The timing of this aligns with the focus given by the Aquino administration to clean up government processes and institutions.

Improved long term competitiveness however is not a single pronged approach as we have identified five core areas that we feel technology can assist the Philippines move further up the WEF rankings. The “Five E’s” as we have dubbed them are: Education, Employability, Entrepreneurship, Excellence and Ethics.

Our focus at Microsoft Philippines will be to utilise our technology to give individuals the edge they need to get employed or start something of their own. From empowering start-ups to thrive and grow, to helping all businesses, regardless of industry, maximise their productivity and investments through solutions built on the Microsoft platform we are committed to this goal.

These are not really new priorities, but our company wide focus on such a core group of areas is. Still in my experience for many it comes as surprise to consider a technology company thinking so broadly about how technology can be of benefit. Far too often the technology sector is been pigeon holed as only being relevant to the tech sector. In actuality for the last 16 years, we’ve been using the magic of our software to impact these important areas to transform Filipino lives and businesses.

From the direct investment in our network of more than 900 business partners and awarding over US$55 million of contracts to outsource centres located in the Philippines. To working with a number of not-for-profits to offer skills upgrading (Microsoft’s TULAY program), helping people escape from human trafficking (the step-UP program, a partnership between Microsoft and the Visayan Forum Foundation) and providing more US$ 6 million in software grants to organisations such as Gawad Kalinga and the Visayan Forum Foundation to help them improve their operational efficiency and information collaboration.

I have been speaking to many people, our partners, our stakeholders in Government and our customers and they have     responded enthusiastically at this “big picture” of what the Philippines can achieve.