PHL Digital Ecosystem Takes Spotlight at French Business Chamber in Paris

Ambassador Ma. Theresa Lazaro delivers the opening remarks at the MEDEF Digital Disruption Lab conference for the Philippines. Looking on is MEDEF Digital Ambassador, Mr. Olivier Midiere.

02 October 2017 PARIS – Over 200 participants from the French public and private sectors attended a conference organized by the MEDEF Digital Disruption Lab to present the Philippine and Singapore digital ecosystems on September 28.

MEDEF, or the Mouvement des entreprises de France (“Movement of French Companies”), is the largest and most powerful network of entrepreneurs in France with over 750,000 member companies.

The MEDEF created a Digital Disruption Lab and appointed a Digital Ambassador, Mr. Olivier Midiere, to visit various digital ecosystems all over the world in order to identify international partners to help guide its member companies in their digital transformation.

The Philippines and Singapore were two of the countries visited by Mr. Midiere. The other countries visited are the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Kenya, South Africa, China, Japan and South Korea.

During the presentation of his mission, Mr. Midiere revealed his great surprise at the Philippines, which was not originally included in his world tour. He admitted that he would never have visited the Philippines were it not for the invitation of Her Excellency Ma. Theresa Lazaro, Philippine Ambassador to France.

After his mission to the Philippines, however, which took place in May 2017, Mr. Midiere realized that the Philippines had a strong industrial base borne out of its electronics sector, which contributes almost USD 30 billion and represents more than 50% of total exports. This solid hardware base, coupled with the vibrant IT-BPM sector, made the Philippines an attractive digital destination for French companies interested in transforming their products to connected objects.

The Filipinos’ young population, with 50,000 Engineering graduates every year who all speak English and are comfortable with new technologies, makes the Philippines a “reservoir of immense talent”. The country’s robust growth and 100 million strong domestic market add to the country’s attractiveness.

Ambassador Lazaro delivered the opening remarks at the conference while Ms. Kat Borlongan, a Filipina with an open data startup in Paris, and Mr. Thibaut de Vaureix, the Sales Director of Philippine electronics leader Integrated Micro-Electronics Inc., provided testimonials.

Another conference is planned by MEDEF in December this team featuring a full report on all the countries visited by Mr. Midiere. After this presentation, the incubation program of the Digital Disruption Lab will begin and French CEOs of SMEs will be embarking on learning expeditions to the countries visited in order to begin the digital transformation of their products. END

For more information, visit  www.parispe.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/PHinFrance/ https://twitter.com/PHinFrance

From left: MEDEF Digital Ambassador Olivier Midiere, Ms. Kat Borlongan and Mr. Thibaut de Vaureix