Publication: Philippines Digital Economy Report 2020: A Better Normal Under COVID-19 - Digitalizing the Philippine Economy Now
Loading...
Date
2020-10-01
ISSN
Published
2020-10-01
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic underscores the importance of digitalization for economic and social resilience. COVID-19 is restricting mobility and economic activity around the world, and the Philippines is no exception. As mobility restrictions and social distancing measures limit face-to-face interactions and activities, the availability of affordable digital technologies has emerged as a key determinant of resilience. Indeed, digital technologies allow businesses, the government and schools to pursue operations online rather than completely shutting down. E-commerce and digital payments have permitted business transactions to continue and goods to be delivered; online communication platforms have facilitated home-based work, virtual meetings, and remote classes; and government agencies in many countries have used online processes to quickly deliver social assistance to vulnerable households. Unfortunately, not all countries have been able to leverage digital technologies to their full extent, because of poor access to high quality internet and long-held analog practices. In the Philippines, COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption and use of digital technologies. However, digitalization is largely constrained by the country’s low high-speed broadband penetration, which lags behind neighboring middle-income countries. The digital divide in the Philippines is large with nearly 60 percent of households not having access to internet, and unable to reap the benefits of digitalization. As a result, face-to-face interactions and analog practices largely dominate in the Philippines, making social distancing economically costly. For example, cash and cheques remain the dominant modes of payment while applying for permits and licenses typically requires exchange of documents in person. Gatherings of people waiting in lines are typical fixture for Filipinos to secure goods and services. This report provides a thorough analysis of the obstacles to digitalization and identifies key reforms and policy measures that could help the Philippines harness the potential of the digital economy. It uses the CHIP (Connect, Harness, Innovate, Protect) conceptual framework to analyze the requirements to accelerate digital transformation. The framework focuses on four key drivers of digitalization: (i) Connect, which refers to a set measures to build the digital foundation and enablers such as digital infrastructure for participation in the digital economy; (ii) Harness, which points to needed investments in analog complements such as skills, regulations, and institutions to leverage the old economy; (iii) Innovate, which refers to expanding the new economy services, digital payments, digital entrepreneurship and e-government; and (iv) Protect, which focuses on mitigating the risks in the digital economy. The need to act on the digital economy is urgent. Reforms delivered now will help the government cushion the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, support the recovery in the medium term, and make the economy more inclusive, competitive, and resilient to similar shocks in the long term.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2020. Philippines Digital Economy Report 2020: A Better Normal Under COVID-19 - Digitalizing the Philippine Economy Now. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34606 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication ICT Indicators and Implications for Methods for Assessing Socioeconomic Impact of ICT(Washington, DC, 2012)This report is being delivered pursuant to the agreement (Agreement) between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the Arab Republic of Egypt (MCIT) and the World Bank (Bank) for the provision by the Bank of technical assistance (RTA) to MCIT and certain of its affiliates. One of those affiliates is the Information Technology Industry Development Authority (ITIDA). When it comes to designing and implementing ICT policies, the availability of proper indicators is key to efficiency and effectiveness. However, the indicators should go further, and should help policymakers also to measure how well the sector or projects are performing, provide an assessment over time on the status of a project, program, or policy, promote credibility and public confidence by reporting on the results of programs, provide in-depth information about public sector performance, help formulate and justify budget requests, and identify potentially promising programs or practices for duplication or scalability. Thus, this report is composed of the following sections: (i) a discussion of indicator types, in particular impact indicators and their constraints; (ii) an overview of the institutional setup of ICT data in Egypt; (iii) ICT data categories and methodologies used by major international indices and reports, including an analysis of Egypt's strong and weak results in the indices; (iv) a mapping and gap analysis between the indices' indicators and those currently collected by Egypt; (v) a set of recommendations for Egypt and (vi) implications of this work with respect to analyzing the socioeconomic impact of ICTs on investment, trade, growth and education in Egypt.Publication Knowledge Map of the Virtual Economy(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-04)The report is structured as follows. The next section introduces the theoretical notion of a 'virtual economy' and explains how it is distinct from other Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-related economic activities. The following sections describe in detail the main areas of the virtual economy, their economic impact, business models and value chains. The two major areas of the existing virtual economy are identified as: 1) third party gaming services and 2) microwork. This report will focus largely on these two distinct but conceptually related areas. Gaming services is an established industry that provides a rich set of evidence for analysis, while microwork is an emerging industry with apparently significant development potential. Other existing activities within the virtual economy are categorized as: 3) marketing related paid-for connections in social media ('cherry blossoming') and 4) user-created virtual goods in virtual environments. These are not covered in detail due to their limited development potential, at least at present. The sixth section analyzes the development potential of the virtual economy. Development potential is here understood as the ability to provide income to local economies through employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. Both short-run opportunities and long-run income development are considered. Development potential also includes the ability to support the development of local ICT infrastructure. In the final section, the report summarizes the key findings, identifies important gaps in current knowledge, and sketches out the scope for possible donor or Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)-led interventions towards maximizing the development potential of the virtual economy.Publication China's Information Revolution : Managing the Economic and Social Transformation(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2007)This report presents a comprehensive overview of the information, communication and technological sector in China, and the role it has played during economic and social transformation in the past decade. It provides guidance on the kind of reforms policy makers in China may wish to consider in pursuing the country's quest for continued ICT development. It also combines local perspectives with international experiences on how issues in areas such as legal and regulatory environment, telecommunications infrastructures, and IT industry have been addressed by other countries.Publication ICT for Greater Development Impact(Washington, DC, 2012-06-15)Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have great promise to reduce poverty, increase productivity, boost economic growth, and improve accountability and governance. That promise only grew when ICTs underwent a revolution in the 2000s. Nearly 5 billion people in developing countries now use mobile phones, up from 200 million at the last decade's start, and the number of Internet users has risen 10-fold. People across the globe do much more than chat and play games. They learn where best to fish and what market to sell their produce in. They trace cattle from pastures to supermarkets. They report illegal logging and misuses of local budget. They pay bills, send money back home, and receive cash transfers. They do business on mobile phones. They use ICTs to prevent violence against women and community radio to empower them. They get state-of-the-art schooling online. They remotely monitor and switch on irrigation pumps. The World Bank Group (WBG) has worked with its clients as they have pursued these opportunities and has supported sector reforms through technical assistance and lending operations, guided by its 2001 ICT strategy. The WBG has been most successful in fostering ICT sector reform and attracting private investment in mobile communications. WBG support for ICT applications has grown rapidly over the past decade. More than 1,300 active Bank investment projects have ICT components (74 percent of the Bank's 1,700-project portfolio) to modernize internal processes and upgrade service delivery. Results have been mixed, with only 59 percent of Bank project components for ICT applications achieving or likely to achieve their objectives fully or substantially.Publication Korea and the Knowledge-based Economy : Making the Transition(Washington, DC: World Bank and OECD, 2000-06)Knowledge is fast becoming a key factor in economic and social development worldwide. Rapid innovations in science, communications and computing technologies are opening up new opportunities for countries to harness knowledge and participate more fully in the global economy. Developing countries that successfully make the transition to the knowledge-based economy will have unprecedented possibilities to become more competitive in world markets and to participate in the global information society. New technologies can also extend the benefits of knowledge to all segments of society and help countries close the gap in living standards among their citizens. This book defines a knowledge-based economy as one where knowledge is created, acquired, transmitted and used effectively by enterprises, organizations, individuals and communities. It does not focus narrowly on high-technology industries or on information and communications technologies, but rather presents a framework for analyzing a range of policy options in education, information infrastructure and innovation systems that can help usher in the knowledge economy. It also makes the case for better co-ordination among the government, the private sector and civil society to enhance competitiveness and advance economic and social development.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition(Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank, 2016-09-13)The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.Publication World Development Report 2009(World Bank, 2009)Places do well when they promote transformations along the dimensions of economic geography: higher densities as cities grow; shorter distances as workers and businesses migrate closer to density; and fewer divisions as nations lower their economic borders and enter world markets to take advantage of scale and trade in specialized products. World Development Report 2009 concludes that the transformations along these three dimensions density, distance, and division are essential for development and should be encouraged. The conclusion is controversial. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. A billion people live in lagging areas of developing nations, remote from globalizations many benefits. And poverty and high mortality persist among the world’s bottom billion, trapped without access to global markets, even as others grow more prosperous and live ever longer lives. Concern for these three intersecting billions often comes with the prescription that growth must be spatially balanced. This report has a different message: economic growth will be unbalanced. To try to spread it out is to discourage it to fight prosperity, not poverty. But development can still be inclusive, even for people who start their lives distant from dense economic activity. For growth to be rapid and shared, governments must promote economic integration, the pivotal concept, as this report argues, in the policy debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration. Instead, all three debates overemphasize place-based interventions. Reshaping Economic Geography reframes these debates to include all the instruments of integration spatially blind institutions, spatially connective infrastructure, and spatially targeted interventions. By calibrating the blend of these instruments, today’s developers can reshape their economic geography. If they do this well, their growth will still be unbalanced, but their development will be inclusive.Publication World Development Report 2004(World Bank, 2003)Too often, services fail poor people in access, in quality, and in affordability. But the fact that there are striking examples where basic services such as water, sanitation, health, education, and electricity do work for poor people means that governments and citizens can do a better job of providing them. Learning from success and understanding the sources of failure, this year’s World Development Report, argues that services can be improved by putting poor people at the center of service provision. How? By enabling the poor to monitor and discipline service providers, by amplifying their voice in policymaking, and by strengthening the incentives for providers to serve the poor. Freedom from illness and freedom from illiteracy are two of the most important ways poor people can escape from poverty. To achieve these goals, economic growth and financial resources are of course necessary, but they are not enough. The World Development Report provides a practical framework for making the services that contribute to human development work for poor people. With this framework, citizens, governments, and donors can take action and accelerate progress toward the common objective of poverty reduction, as specified in the Millennium Development Goals.Publication World Development Report 2019(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019)Work is constantly reshaped by technological progress. New ways of production are adopted, markets expand, and societies evolve. But some changes provoke more attention than others, in part due to the vast uncertainty involved in making predictions about the future. The 2019 World Development Report will study how the nature of work is changing as a result of advances in technology today. Technological progress disrupts existing systems. A new social contract is needed to smooth the transition and guard against rising inequality. Significant investments in human capital throughout a person’s lifecycle are vital to this effort. If workers are to stay competitive against machines they need to train or retool existing skills. A social protection system that includes a minimum basic level of protection for workers and citizens can complement new forms of employment. Improved private sector policies to encourage startup activity and competition can help countries compete in the digital age. Governments also need to ensure that firms pay their fair share of taxes, in part to fund this new social contract. The 2019 World Development Report presents an analysis of these issues based upon the available evidence.Publication Boom, Bust and Up Again? Evolution, Drivers and Impact of Commodity Prices: Implications for Indonesia(World Bank, Jakarta, 2010-12)Indonesia is one of the largest commodity exporters in the world, and given its mineral potential and expected commodity price trends, it could and should expand its leading position. Commodities accounted for one fourth of Indonesia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and more than one fifth of total government revenue in 2007. The potential for further commodity growth is considerable. Indonesia is the largest producer of palm oil in the world (export earnings totaled almost US$9 billion in 2007 and employment 3.8 million full-time jobs) and the sector has good growth prospects. It is also one of the countries with the largest mining potential in view of its second-largest copper reserves and third-largest coal and nickel reserves in the world. This report consists of seven chapters. The first six chapters present an examination and an analysis of the factors driving increased commodity prices, price forecasts, economic impact of commodity price increases, effective price stabilization policies, and insights from Indonesia's past growth experience. The final chapter draws on the findings of the previous chapters and suggests a development strategy for Indonesia in the context of high commodity prices. This section summarizes the contents of the chapters and their main findings.