THE International Data Corp. (IDC) announced it has selected government’s “Technology for Education, Employment, Entrepreneurs and Economic Development”, or Tech4ED, project as a finalist in its competition. IDC said Tech4ED has been chosen as one of the finalists in its annual Smart City Asia Pacific Awards (Scapa) 2017 under the category of Economic Development.
“Tech4ED follows in the footsteps of the country’s Project Noah initiative, which was also chosen as a finalist and ultimately announced as the winner for the category of Public Safety in Scapa 2016,” IDC said in a May 31 statement.
Established by the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the project initiative sought to establish Tech4ED Centers nationwide. The center is expected to offer a one-stop shop to citizens “where services like platform usage, digital literacy, Internet usage and skills training are available for free.”
“The platform also provides easy online application and processing of government documents, access to eLearning tools and other online resources,” IDC said.
“Tech4ED pushes national digital inclusion through eCenters scattered around the country, helping bridge digital divide, especially in digitally challenged areas,” IDC Philippines Head of Operations Jubert Daniel Alberto was quoted in the statement as saying. “By addressing digital literacy, Tech4ED advances economic empowerment by engaging not just the youth but also the so-called digital aliens in the country.”
According to IDC, it created the Scapa to identify, benchmark and publicly vote on the best projects each year across 14 functional smart city strategic domains. It is an intensive six-month process that tracks and evaluates hundreds of smart city initiatives in Asia Pacific. Tech4ED is one of 46 smart city projects across Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) that was shortlisted out of over 150 submissions from vendors, local governments and analysts as IDC Government Insights Asia Pacific undertakes the benchmarking of the top smart city projects in the 14 categories highlighted above.
All finalists will compete with other outstanding projects through public voting, IDC internal evaluation and judging from an International Advisory Council. Like 2016, 50 percent of the criteria for judging will come from public votes while the other half will be based on internal assessment from the IDC Research Team and the Advisory Council. IDC will declare one winner under each smart city strategic domain.
Voting period started on May 31 and ends on June 30. The public is encouraged to participate by voting for the smart city initiatives that have made the biggest impact in their citizen life.
Voters will stand a chance to win a Gear VR as one of 10 lucky voters selected through an electronic raffle draw at the end of public voting.
“As we move into our third year of benchmarking various groundbreaking Smart City projects in Asia Pacific, key discussions around empowering both ICT and line-of-business leadership, information governance and digital economies as well as workable strategic sourcing considerations are noted,” said Gerald Wang, Head of IDC government and education insights Asia/ Pacific. “Ultimately, government organizations, city leaders, and urban planners need to build a robust Smart City ecosystem to attract both foreign direct investments and manpower talents.”