In a convergence of digital entrepreneurship champions and advocates, Undersecretary Jocelle Batapa-Sigue of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) represented Secretary Ivan John Uy, emphasizing the transformative power of digitalization at the Digital Sign Up 2023. The summit, held on September 23, 2023, at Ayala Malls Manila Bay, Parañaque City, aimed to accelerate the Philippines’ digital transformation and bolster the global competitiveness of the nation’s MSMEs.

A Journey of Transformation

For Undersecretary Batapa-Sigue, the event marked a moment of coming full circle. Sixteen years prior, she had the honor of meeting Joey Concepcion and receiving an award from him personally at the University of Saint La Salle in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.

The Bacolod IT Focus Team, which she proposed and chaired, evolved into a robust ICT association, generating over forty thousand digital jobs and earning recognition as a Center of Excellence in IT-BPM in 2014.

Batapa-Sigue highlighted her role during the pandemic as a mentor to hundreds of MSMEs nationwide through the Mentor Me program under the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship. She expressed her gratitude to Joey Concepcion, Go Negosyo, the Department of Trade and Industry, and everyone behind these institutions:

“And so – I would like to take this opportunity – to thank Go Negosyo, the Department of Trade and Industry, and all those behind these institutions. Today, I stand before you not only as the undersecretary of the DICT but also as a beneficiary, a testament to the transformative power of your programs,” she said.

DICT’s Digital Transformation Vision

Undersecretary Batapa-Sigue outlined her commitment to developing strategies, policies, and programs to increase digital jobs and opportunities across every region and province of the country. She emphasized the DICT’s focus on leveraging benefits of the Digital Age, from emerging technologies like AI, IoT, and blockchain to simple digital solutions that enhance productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness.

The overarching goal of DICT is to ensure citizen-centric governance and promote digital inclusion. The department aims to build trust for digital solutions, ensure cybersecurity, and foster an innovation-driven economy where startups play a pivotal role.

Here are some excerpts for the insights of Undersecretary Batapa-Sigue:

In my capacity now as DICT undersecretary in charge of industry and policy development, I am committed to formulating strategies, policies, and programs to increase digital jobs and opportunities across every region and province of our country.

Our goal is to ensure that our mandate of providing connectivity to every Filipino translates into meaningful, impactful connections.

Now as DICT undersecretary, among my specific tasks is to develop strategies, policies, and programs to increase the numbers for digital jobs and opportunities in the country – down to every to every region and province — to drive digital innovation up to the last municipality or city – so that our mandate of providing access to connectivity to every Filipino – really translates to meaningful connectivity – the outcomes to are felt on the ground – beyond just digital infrastructure – but also impacting on human development.

The DICT, particularly under my portfolio is tasked to help develop policy and standards for the country together with all stakeholders to leverage on all the benefits of the Digital Age – from frontier or emerging technologies like AI, IOT, blockchain and more to simple digital solutions that will help increase productivity, efficiency, inter-operability of our industries, that will push for precision, accuracy and agility of our processes, that will enhance the capacity of startups, and MSMEs to be competitive and scale their innovative ideas.

At the DICT – with dedication like never before – humbly – exert all our efforts to lead the digital transformation journey of the Philippines by focusing on people, policy, connectivity, security, and resiliency. Our overarching goal – on top of ensuring to providing universal access is to ensure a citizen-centric governance which prioritizes solutions beyond just technology to provide ease in government transactions, to promote digital inclusion where no one is left behind; to ensure a safe cyberspace by building trust for digital solutions and ensuring cybersecurity; and help develop an innovation – driven economy where startups are key players to our economy.

I happily took on the role of representing the DICT today even when it is a weekend – because I know it is an opportunity to re-charge – by being in the company of trailblazers and movers for digital innovation and entrepreneurship. Congratulations and may this event yield more digital champions that will truly help lift our countrymen and our nation to greater heights!

Summit Highlights and Objectives

The Digital Sign Up Summit 2023 featured panel discussions, inspirational talks, a digital expo, and free one-on-one business mentorship. The event served as a learning platform for entrepreneurs and aimed to create awareness of various digital platforms that can help SMEs further their business.

The summit also sought to inspire MSMEs by showcasing success stories, best practices, and disruptive business models, emphasizing digitalization as a tool to help MSMEs become self-earning entrepreneurs and contribute to inclusive growth and development.

Empowering a Digitally Driven Future

In conclusion, Undersecretary Batapa-Sigue celebrated the opportunity to be among digital trailblazers and innovators and congratulated the participants. She expressed hope that the event would inspire more digital champions to elevate the nation to unparalleled heights, ending her speech with a heartfelt “Maraming salamat po! Mabuhay ang Go Negosyo Digital Sign Up!”

The summit brought together a diverse group of participants including micro, small, and medium entrepreneurs, digital app founders, innovation experts, startups, incubators, young professionals, students, and individuals interested in contributing to the advancement of the country’s digital landscape. The collaborative effort promises a step forward in harnessing digital innovation to uplift the lives of Filipinos and drive the nation towards a digitally empowered future.

Founder’s Insights: “Digitalization is the biggest blessing from the pandemic”

Here are direct excertps from the speech Go Negosyo Founder Joey Conception:

This (Go Negosyo) is a platform that I believe that will help you as micro and small entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help you succeed. We cannot tell you what your business should be. That is your decision. This event and the many events that we do, for the past so many years, 18 years now, is there for you to be able to discover your skill, your strength. Even if you’re not a college graduate, it’s fine. There are many out there who have been successful and don’t have a degree. But they’re different because their passion to succeed in life is innate. So in other words, coming to an event like this, you will hear a lot of inspirational stories. You will hear many of them, how their journey to that point where they’re in today. And I have been mentoring so many people over the last so many years. And I’ve seen programs like what we do, do work. The first thing that is very important and hopefully when you leave this session, you will be inspired. Because if you are not inspired, then that’s a  big failure. Hopefully you will be inspired by the people who will be sharing how and what is their journey as an entrepreneur. Hopefully later on you will have time to be mentored by those who already have a business especially our mentors are available, if they’re not available we have them almost on a weekly basis in every mall that we’ve been moving around for the past years. So we will help you and guide you up to a certain point. But remember, to be an entrepreneur, you have to have the right mindset. That’s very basic and that’s what many of them will tell you; the right mindset.

You have to be an optimist. You have to stop reading the newspapers that tell you all that this country is not going to get anywhere. Don’t let all of this pessimism sometimes that people talk about. “Inflation is up”, “Things are gonna go wrong”. Look, many of our MSMEs survived the pandemic. That was the worst time in Philippine history for Philippine business. And yet, we were able to navigate them and help them survive. So for those who want to be successful, you have that equal opportunity. Mentors are here to help you. And trust me, I’ve seen people who struggle in life. My learning in this whole experience when we started Go Negosyo 18 years ago, people ask me why do I do this. It’s a passion and I learned basically from the people I mentor, of what their problems are. What are the opportunities out there and what are the skills we have to teach for you to become successful. And that’s why digitalization is the biggest blessing that this pandemic has given the Philippines because prior to that, nobody could avail of a credit card. So what happened when the government mandated basically all contactless, all of you were forced to get Gcash or Paymaya; that is the game changer. And while us in big business, you have to go to us as part of our value chain, that changes everything. You have now the freedom to sell your products on the platforms, you have now the freedom to be a motorcycle driver or a grab driver or whatever, because of all these platforms. And that is a big difference.