Thank you very much for that introduction Executive Secretary Luc Bersamin; the Ambassador of Japan to the Philippines, His Excellency Ambassador Koshikawa Kazuhiko; and other members of the diplomatic corps who are present here today; of course, our DICT Secretary, Secretary Ivan Uy and other members of his department; and of course our partners, the Chairman of InfiniVAN Inc., Mr. Koji Miyashita; [applause] and my fellow workers in government; and of course, our very important partners in the private sector; and a very important partner in financing institutions who were introduced earlier; ladies and gentlemen, good evening.
Since the start of this Administration, it has been a quickly recognized that the—the importance of digitalization and the role of the private sector in achieving our vision of a digitally connected Philippines.
With the help of our private sector partners, we continue to pursue measures towards providing the Filipino people with reliable and affordable internet services, which will enable us to improve our standing in the world in terms of broadband and mobile internet speed and coverage.
Tonight, what we have done here will accelerate the pace of our improvement anew as we light-up the beam of the Philippine Domestic Submarine Cable Network or the PDSCN.
Spanning approximately 2,500 kilometers, it is now the longest and highest capacity domestic submarine fiber cable network in the Philippines, connecting our islands in various touch points from the Quezon to Zamboanga.
With the completion of the PDSCN, let me express our excitement and our optimism as we zoom in on faster fiber internet speeds for Filipinos.
I congratulate InfiniVAN and its partners—Globe Telecom and Eastern Telecommunications—for making this impressive and— project a reality.
The project that you initiated, and meticulously completed without much fanfare, is truly a game changer in the Philippines’ quest to be amongst equals in terms of internet interconnectivity and digital transformation.
It is also a testament not only to Japanese ingenuity and technological advancement that we strive to emulate, but also to the strong bonds of friendship that connect our two countries forever.
Because of this connection, we now find a long-term solution that delivers high-connectivity and high-speed internet for our people and facilitates the realization of the Bagong Pilipinas that we envision for our country.
With this project, we will be able to better position our country as an even more attractive destination for technology-centric businesses such as hyperscale data centers and AI computing.
We will also be able to provide faster internet [and] more efficient digital services to Filipinos located in both urban and rural areas of the country.
More importantly, this will help facilitate our efforts to digitalize public data and government services to cater to the needs of our people efficiently.
This same vision and foresight of our future with the PDSCN is shared by our Japanese friends and partners.
Again, we would like to thank you for choosing to do business in our country and for making possible the much-needed high technology transfer that will allow us to be at par with our more advanced peers in today’s technology-driven global marketplace.
I look forward to further collaboration and partnership in different endeavors where we could gain from your experience and your expertise.
We are excited to see your many investments that will come to fruition in the near future.
So, let me reiterate that this government supports public-private sector investment, and we are committed to promoting ease of doing business in the Philippines to facilitate the establishment of critical infrastructure in telecommunications.
This project brings us our dream of a better, brighter, and more connected Bagong Pilipinas.
Thank you, and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. [Applause]
Mabuhay ang InfiniVAN at ang PDSCN![Applause]
Mabuhay ang Bagong Pilipinas! [Applause]
Maraming salamat po at magandang gabi po sa inyong lahat. [Applause]
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