Last week, the Department of Information and Communications
Technology (DICT) in Philippines and Youthhack
jointly announced
the signing of an agreement to enrich and strengthen innovation communities and
drive growth of the digital startup movement in the Philippines.
Youthhack was
started in Manila in 2014 with the goal of bringing the Silicon Valley culture
to the Philippines. Since then, Youthhack has grown into an international
community with chapters in Calabarzon, Bangkok, Sri Lanka, Korea, Malaysia,
Philadelphia, and events in Italy, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It organises startup
challenges, code weekends, student incubators and coding bootcamps.
The agreement will extend connections between the government
and the international organisation, with the objective of immersing the youth
in the startup culture, technology-based skills and entrepreneurship through
the DICT-Youthhack
Startup Challenge High School Edition
The two-day hackathon, which will be held on January 27-28,
2018, aims to introduce students to the startup world. The event comprises mix
of workshops that will help participating teams on ideation, prototyping, and
pitching. Teams will present their startup ideas to a panel of judges on a demo
day.
“We welcome this partnership with Youthhack with the hopes
that this will help us continue our advocacy in empowering communities and
Filipinos especially at a young age and eventually create a nation of
innovators and digital entrepreneurs,” said DICT-eInnovation Program Manager,
Emmy Lou V. Delfin.
Youthhack’s Vice President for External Affairs, Bianca
Bravo, commented on the partnership, “It’s our first time partnering with the
government and at first, we were wary because we thought that our plea was a
shot in the dark but thankfully DICT proved us wrong. I cannot emphasise enough
how crucial it is for youth orgs like YouthHack to gain support from capable
agencies such as DICT. Through this partnership, we’re not just able to reach a
bigger scope but our objectives of inclusivity and collaboration is also
achieved.”
Through its seedPH Program, DICT aims to strengthen the
Philippine Digital Startup Ecosystem and support the continued development of
relevant innovations and digital startups throughout the country by encouraging
the Filipino youth to develop ideas that could either help solve societal
challenges or become successful businesses.
The seedPH encourages Filipinos especially the youth to
create startups through the programs summed up in one phrase: I C.A.N., which
stands for the Programme’s main thrusts for the Startup Community: Inform,
Collaborate, Accelerate and Nurture.
