By Rose B. Palacio

Davao City (15 December) -- Modern Information Technology (IT) is an investment in the formation of communication and technology.

IT has been predicted to increase especially with the business sector and government's focus on creating knowledge-based economy, said Department of Science and Technology (DOST) officer-in-charge Ed Tesorero.

The government is providing an all-support for the full development of IT industry in the country and once we have developed IT, our country will not be fully dependent on imports from abroad and likewise we can develop our own industries, develop our own expertise in software development, Tesorero said.

While our country is into software exports, the participation is only limited to assembling and not on design and application and the government feels that we should look into other possibilities for our own development, he said.

He cited the wealth of expertise in Mindanao considering the many academic institutions involved in advanced electronic work.

IT is most effective medium in improving the region's economy with Mindanao now actively participating in the Information and Communication Technology.

We are also looking on software development as an effective medium in improving the region's economy, he said.

Just recently, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo launched the country's Innovation Strategy, an information technology designed to strengthen the country's competitiveness in the global knowledge-based economy and transform the Philippines into a technology hub in Asia.

The launching, led by the President, was assisted by Commission on Information and Communications Technology Chair Rey Anthony Roxas Chua and DOST Secretary Estrella Alabastro.

The Innovation Strategy was crafted to answer the call of the President to hasten the achievement of the goal of making technology the foundation of future economic development.