Almost a hundred internet café owners and operators decided to organize into a single national federation to improve their quality of service and harmonize their role in the ICT industry during a summit hosted by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) last week at its office in Diliman, Quezon City.

According to CICT Secretary Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua, “Internet cafés are reaching more and more Filipinos and allowing them to access to the information superhighway. Their popularity shows the eagerness of Filipinos to use the Internet, and the CICT joins I-Café Pilipinas in looking for new ways to bridge the digital divide.”

The CICT gathered the officials and members of nine Internet café associations from all over the country in the first-ever summit to define their role as part of the ICT industry and come up with action plans to improve their services.

For his part, CICT Commissioner Monchito Ibrahim says, “I hope that at the end of this summit, we will find ourselves on the road to creating a single umbrella association for all Internet café operators and allied businesses nationwide.”

This was exactly what happened with the action plan adopted at the end of the event, which was a joint effort of the I-Café Pilipinas, a national social advocacy network composed of Internet café owners, and operators and associations in the Philippines.

With the theme “Towards a Better Internet Café Industry in the Next Decade,” the summit aimed to bring together the Internet café sector, allied industries and concerned government agencies to discuss relevant issues affecting Internet café businesses and come up with a unified program that will make the sector an important part of the ICT industry.

The conference was subdivided into four sub-themes which made participants aware of the numerous government programs available to them and linked them up with related ICT businesses like online gaming and IT hardware and software vendors. These include: 1) The Internet Café as Community Digital Business Centers; 2) The Internet Café as Centers of Entertainment and Communication; 3) The Internet Café as Centers for Education and Collaboration; and 4) The Internet Café Owners Quest for Continuous Knowledge.

The Internet café associations which participated were Valenzuela Internet Café Association, Internet Café Association of Manila, Los Banos Computer Owners and Operators League, Internet Café Association of Tagum, Internet Café Association of Imus, San Juan Internet Café Association, Internet Café Association of Zambales, Internet Café Association of Dasmarinas and members of the Unified Lanshop Owners of the Philippines.

The event was supported by key partners such as Intel Technology Philippines, Bayan Business, Smart Communications and Cubenet Interactive.