BI's Viado to Meet IBMATA's Ayley To Address PH Border Management Challenges

 

While the Philippines sit on Earth's equator, it's total coastline is 22,548 miles which means management of it would prove challenging for any entity. This week, the International Border Management and Technologies Association's CEO Sharon Ayley will be in talks with the PH Bureau of Immigration very own Commissioner Anthony Viado to take serious steps in addressing what the Philippines is facing with regards to trafficking, security and border practices. 

Ayley says "We hold summits in 5 regions, find information and solutions. Trafficking is an important issue, and there's a need to talk about it, need to communicate not just for professionals but the community. Parents need to talk to children as they are targeting vulnerable people. The best way to protect themselves is by being informed. IBMATA does a series of workshops for this particular subject and this isn't an isolated issue in the Philippines, it is a global problem. The output of that is that technology can help with the problem, to protect the vulnerable people." 

She adds "With advanced analytics and AI tools, it can help us identify unusual travel patterns. It also helps monitoring watch lists, but it's not 100 percent. People in the front lines are working at higher pressure and have to make critical decisions. We need to make sure they have the tools, technology to make sure they have the information and trust their instincts. We need to get them training, help and support that they need."

Here's our talk about PH border challenges, and a few things that the country is doing good at; 

She puts emphasis on the country having multiple ports of entry (we have 7160 islands++) which makes it extra hard to do. She suggests to have it done with standards on each border. With systems in place like biometrics, and e-gates (where I think BI is already doing). This puts legitimate travelers with lesser hindrance so border agents get to concentrate on bigger issues like high risk cases to combat trafficking and other matters. It is here and is happening, we are 2nd globally according to statistics. 

She also suggests data sharing with not just government offices, but other ports elsewhere in the world (with ample security) and see it real time. This also includes biometrics to lessen identification concerns. This will also stop exploitation, and hopefully will put a stop with the issues mentioned earlier. Education, access to information is certainly the first line of defense. They have plans to hold future events and might take on other organization to help host it.

 

Here's hoping that the things they'll be covering this week will get some questions answered and actionable items be accomplished. 

Why We Smile Amidst Challenges

It's been a running joke for most folks to see Filipinos get into a resilient mode every time there's a calamity or challenge. It probably stems from our defense to try and smile instead of suffering, a survival mechanism to find simple joys in small things. 

Losing power, we make shadow plays. We experience floods, we'd probably swim in it. When we get stressed, we try to entertain ourselves, and it's something that's innately Filipino to not dwell in problems and why not? 

We even experience heartbreaks and poke fun at ourselves and the situation... instead of being in a condition to not perform tasks or activities because of certain limitations. We even make music out of it because yes, it is an escape. 

When we can't do it, we find ways to survive, and tell ourselves we still have something to hold on to... and just carry on!

Cooperation in Tech to Fight Global Challenges

Huawei just concluded the Huawei TrustInTech Summit 2021 a few days ago online. The theme this year was about "Global Collaboration for Shared Value" which is very timely especially with the challenges we're facing today.


Dignitaries present in the event include Neil Bush the Chairman of George H.W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations, Pascal Lamy the Former Director General of the WTO, William Nordhause Nobel Prize winner in Economics for 2018, HE Satvinder Singh the Deputy Secretary General for the ASEAN Economic Community, Derrick Pitts of NASA Solar System Ambassador and Huawei's Senior Vice President and also President of Huawei Digital power. The session includes topics about current challenges in the economy and a cal for global concerted efforts for environmental protection, tech and other key areas was done to face these challenges in the new normal. There has been no perfect time to do it but now especially in these conditions. Satvinder Singh said that the role of private corporations like Huawei would do good especially in assuring inclusive and sustainable economic recovery happens in the region. There has been a lot of opportunity to help especially in trade, transportaion, health, ICT work and climate that Huawei has been doing in recent years. He reiterates that investing in these solutions and setting aside differences would power growth especially in ASEAN as it still has room to do that in the next few years.

Hou on the other hand says that this is part of Huawei Digital Power's devotion to making ways for clean power generation in an effort to have low carbon footprint in every habitable city around the world. Green sourced energy amount to 443.5 billion kWh and savings of about 13.6 Billion kWh has been done since their efforts started. This includes the Philippines wherein they've built power plants from solar and other sources. 

 

There's nowhere to go but up!