Glenda Sacbibit, Simit Naik on CoinGeek Backstage: Upskilling Filipino workers on blockchain tech, Web3

The Philippines is doubling down on its digitalization campaign, and the public sector is not one to be left behind.

In an interview with CoinGeek Backstage reporter Claire Celdran, Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD) supervising science research specialist Glenda Dorcas Sacbibit said the team at the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is devoting their time strengthening the country’s research and development of emerging technologies, including blockchain.

Following 2022’s training for the department’s IT practitioners, aimed at equipping them with the right skills on the blockchain, a call for proposals has been launched on projects concerning the technology and its applications on government services and operations.

“We’re kind of still developing the capability within the department, and hopefully, we would be able to resonate this to all departments or within the academe,” said Sacbibit.

She added that providing DOST with the proper skill set on emerging technologies will enable the public sector to develop more practitioners and support the government’s drive to educate the general public on the matter, which will be crucial in the coming years as the country strives for digital transformation.

Sacbibit noted that the DOST has only developed a few blockchain projects, unlike other state-backed departments, noting that its priority is exploring the capabilities and studying the technology. However, while furthering blockchain research, Sacbibit said the DOST is actively building ties with practitioners and the tech industry to craft the proper application that will benefit Filipinos and help them adapt to the digital era.

Web3’s pivotal role in the Philippines’ transformation

With the local government’s limited knowledge of emerging technologies, inputs from tech giants and private institutions like nChain are crucial to supporting the Philippines’ vision of becoming fully digitalized.

Recalling nChain’s participation at an event organized by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Director of Commercial and Strategy Simit Naik said the firm presented its views on emerging technologies along with tech giants Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), among others, and explained where Web3 would play a critical role to help Filipinos prepare for the future.

Naik said that nChain is using the administration of President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr.’s 10-point agenda as a blueprint to identify how emerging technologies would support the nation’s priorities.

“Things from making sure healthcare is available for all, food security, how we can drive financial inclusion, how do we increase the transparency around decisions governments make in terms of things like PPP (Public-Private Partnership), and also how you improve transparency between accessing services between citizens and governments themselves,” Naik said.

He explained that Web3 and blockchain seek to be a solution to address the overlap between sectors trying to attain the common goal of becoming digitalized.

Since striking a collaboration with the Philippine government, Naik said nChain’s recent discussions with officials have shown that the country is becoming more knowledgeable in blockchain technology. He pointed out that the current challenge is introducing the concept of Web3 to Filipinos.

“Web3 as a term can mean everything, and it can mean nothing, and so we were very careful to make sure that we explained exactly what Web3 was, what our definition of Web3 is, and where we believe Web3 plays a significant role and what impact that can have,” he noted, explaining nChain’s theme at the BSP event.

“Once you understand what Web3 is capable of doing and what the benefits are, and then you align that to some of the challenges that they have, it’s very easy to kind of explain the benefits of why they should be considering this technology,” Naik added.

Apart from educating the Philippines on what Web3 is and its use cases, nChain continues to focus its efforts on its ongoing partnership with the province of Bataan while helping the national government in its digitalization drive.

Watch: Philippines sees huge growth in blockchain tech interest