MANILA -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Estonia Prime Minister Kaja Kallas on Wednesday agreed to step up Manila and Tallinn's cooperation in digitalization and e-governance.
The two leaders made this commitment in a historic bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-European Union (ASEAN-EU) Commemorative Summit in Brussels, Belgium.
In the meeting, the chief executive sought Estonia's assistance in the Philippines' digital transformation, noting the challenges of exposure to cyberattacks.
President Marcos said Estonia "seemed to have managed the technologies so well that you're able to resist that."
"We are presently in the midst of our digitalization of government…. both the national and the local levels. Furthermore, since we are digitalizing and digitizing, the issues of cybersecurity has come up, and we know the reputation of Estonia in terms of being able to resist the attacks that had been made to digital systems in the recent past up to the present," Marcos told his European counterpart.
Kallas, meanwhile, invited President Marcos and the Philippine delegation to her country in order to learn more about the key strategies of the European country in digitizing government processes and addressing cyberattacks.
"Cyberattacks and everything is connected… we have invested a lot in cybersecurity, of course, but usually when I show our system in a very simple way... 99 percent of our e-governance services or actually all the public services are digital," Kallas explained.
"You don't have like one big database. But you have very many small ones that are connected to each other. So if one of these is cyberattacked, it goes out, but all the others stay," the Prime Minister pointed out.
Digitalization has been at the top of the Marcos administration's priority agenda, with the chief executive saying the adoption of digital technology would help Filipinos understand the programs of government.
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy, who was present at the meeting, said through information and communications technology, the country would be able to deliver a more efficient government.
Among those who also joined the President in his bilateral meeting with Kallas were former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Senator Mark Villar and officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs. (PND)
