BBM sees India ties boosting digital, AI growth

BENGALURU, India — The elevation of Philippine-India relations to a strategic partnership puts the country at an advantage when it comes to expanding its digital space.

During his five-day state visit to India, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. engaged with the tech business sector.

The Philippines, he said, is looking into analytics, information technology, and artificial intelligence (AI).

“These are the entire range, the entire gamut of activities that fall under digital activity we explored and, certainly, there are really many,” he said during the “Kapihan” with the media here.

He noted that Indian nationals had become experts in AI.

“We talked about AI, we talked about training, because they’re good here in India, really good. They produce a lot of highly trained people who can truly compete in the labor market, who we can take on and who will help us in our digitalization,” he said.

An excited President shared what he wants to happen when these intensified partnerships begin.

“Eventually to bring those technologies to the Philippines and, which is always something, the transfer of technology, of course. And also the training. That’s what we prioritize first,” he said.

One of the options for this cooperation is the people-to-people ties.

Marcos suggested bringing in people from Manila to study and learn in India and vice versa.

“Maybe we can send people here to your institutes. Then, once you’ve trained quite a number of them, you can come over to us to see our system and make suggestions on making it better. That’s what I was saying. The more we look, the more we find,” he said.

India’s ambition benefits Phl

India’s hunger for developing its digital space into a leading sector on the global stage is beneficial to the Philippines, which is also developing its own AI sector.

“So it’s good to see. It was very, very important for us to see. What’s their direction? In their assessment, where is AI headed? Where is it going? What will it become, and what are the things we need to do? Because we keep hearing AI is a very powerful tool, but like any powerful tool, it cuts both ways,” Marcos said.

He highlighted the importance of preparing the Philippines for the future, where the full potential of AI will be explored and put to use.

“We in the Philippines need to develop our own digital space. The phrase that I always use now is, we need to develop that, and we can see how to handle it,” he said.

Marcos said the Philippines must learn how to work with AI as it has two sides: good and bad.

“So how do we handle that? How do we work around that? And then, not only in the business field, but also in the political field. What is social media? Where is it headed? How do we deal with it? What about, you know, misinformation, disinformation, fake news, all of that. How do we deal with that? Are there methods that we can use?” he said.

“There are really so many things, so much indeed. Like I say, there’s a lot we can do with India. There really is. And what was going on in my head every time that I was talking to people, I said, why didn’t we do this earlier? We should have done this earlier. But I’m happy that we did it now,” he said.

Marcos concluded his five-day state visit on Friday with investment pledges of more than $446 million.