The memorandum of understanding (MOU) on digital cooperation between the Philippines and Spain is already on the works, said Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Undersecretary for Public Affairs and Foreign Relations Anna Mae Yu Lamentillo.

Lamentillo, who met anew with Spain’s Ambassador to the Philippines Miguel Utray Delgado, said that the zero draft of the MOU has been sent to Madrid for the DICT’s Spanish counterpart’s inputs.

“We look forward to strengthening our digital partnership with Spain through this MOU. Ambassador Miguel Utray is also very keen on forging this digital collaboration between our nations. We have provided them a copy of our National Broadband Plan and they have offered us a list of Spanish IT companies that the Philippines can partner with, and there are a lot of areas where we can collaborate on,” she said.

The proposed areas of cooperation include Cybersecurity, Connectivity, E-governance, and Artificial Intelligence. They also delved on other areas, such as the digital communication system in the Skyway and the modernization of Customs rules and procedure.

The DICT, under the leadership of Secretary Ivan John Uy, is exploring partnerships with other nations to further cooperation, exchange of knowledge, technical expertise, and best practices on digitalization, among other initiatives.

Lamentillo is spearheading the Department’s efforts relative to the Marcos Administration’s Build Better More thrust, which aims to expand and improve the country’s digital infrastructure and strengthen ICT initiatives towards a truly digital Philippines.