This Special Release presents the preliminary results of the 2017 Survey on Information and Communication Technology (SICT) for the Information Economy (IE) or core Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industries. The SICT adopts the IE or Core ICT industries as its framework. IE refers to industries involved in producing and trading of ICT products, and those which primarily use ICT in providing products and services. IE is comprised of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, and the Content and Media sector.

TABLE A Selected ICT Indicators for the Information Economy (Core ICT Industries) in Percent: Philippines, 2017 and 2015

Almost all establishments own and use computers and communication equipment, and with internet connection

In 2017, a total of 3,508 IE establishments were reported in the preliminary results of the SICT, a decrease of 7.3 percent from the 3,786 IE establishments reported in 2015. Nearly all (99.2%) of these IE establishments used computers and communication equipment in their business operations. Establishments from the content and media sector (99.8%) had a higher percentage of computers and communication equipment than in the ICT sector (99.0%) (Table 1).

At the regional level for the same indicator, all IE establishments in the following regions had computers and communication equipment:

•   Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR)

•   Ilocos Region

•   Cagayan Valley

•   MIMAROPA Region

•   Bicol Region

•   Western Visayas

•   Eastern Visayas

•   Zamboanga Peninsula

•   Northern Mindanao

•   Davao Region

•   Caraga

•   Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)

Of the total IE establishments, 97.2 percent had internet access, higher by 0.5 percentage point than the 96.7 percent reported internet access in 2015.  The content and media sector (98.5%) had a higher internet access compared with the ICT sector (96.8%).  Among the ICT industries, ICT manufacturing (97.7%) registered the highest internet access in 2017.  On the other hand, ICT trade industries reported the lowest internet access at 96.5 percent (Table 1).

Among the regions, only CAR reported a 100.0 percent internet access among IE establishments (Table 8).

Figure 1 shows the percentage of IE establishments with computers and communication equipment, and with internet access by industry in 2017.

About 64.0 percent of employees use computer routinely at work; 57.2 percent use computer with internet connection routinely at work

Of the total IE employees, 64.0 percent used computers routinely at work in 2017. This is higher by 16.1 percentage points than the 47.9 percent proportion in 2015.  Employees in the content and media sector (83.6%) had a higher percentage for this indicator compared with those in the ICT sector (62.4%).

Among the ICT industries, ICT service had the highest percentage of employees using computers routinely at work of 92.3 percent while those in the ICT manufacturing had the least at 45.0 percent.

At the national level, 57.2 percent of the total IE employees used computers routinely at work with internet connection or access. This was higher by 17.2 percentage points than the 40.0 percent reported level in 2015. The content and media sector (80.7%) registered a higher percentage for this indicator than those in the ICT sector (55.2%). ICT service industries (87.5%) had the highest percentage of employees using computers routinely at work with internet connection or access while ICT manufacturing industries had the least at 36.4 percent (Table 2).

By region, the National Capital Region (NCR) reported the highest percentage of employees using computers routinely at work of 88.0 percent while Central Visayas recorded the lowest at 33.2 percent. NCR (82.7%) and Central Luzon (20.8%) were also the regions with the highest and lowest percentages of employees using computers routinely at work with internet connection or access, respectively (Table 9).

Almost 45.0 percent of IE establishments maintain website

Presence of website among IE establishments was 44.9 percent in 2017. This is higher by 15.4 percentage points compared with the 29.5 percent level in 2015.  The content and media sector (51.1%) had a higher percentage of IE establishments with website than those in the ICT sector (42.9%). Among the ICT industries, ICT trade (53.2%) had the highest percentage of establishments with website while ICT service (40.7%) had the lowest percentage (Table 3).

More than half or 57.2 percent of the total IE establishments in NCR had website, the highest among the regions. All IE establishments in ARMM had no website in 2017 (Table 10).

More than three-fourths of the total IE establishments have wired Local Area Network (LAN)

Majority or 77.3 percent of the total IE establishments utilized wired LAN in 2017. This is higher by 15.7 percentage points than the proportion in 2015 of 61.6 percent. Of the total establishments in the content and media sector, 80.2 percent used wired LAN while 76.4 percent for ICT sector.

Meanwhile, 54.7 percent and 21.0 percent of the total IE establishments used wireless LAN and wide area network, respectively (Table 4).

Region wise, eight in every ten IE establishments used wired LAN in Central Visayas (84.2%), Northern Mindanao (82.5%) and Davao Region (83.6%) (Table 11).

About 15.1 percent of the total IE establishments utilize the internet for business

The percentage of IE establishments using internet for e-commerce in 2017 was computed at 15.1 percent, an increase of 1.6 percentage points from the 13.5 percent reported level in 2015.

ICT sector (16.5%) had a higher percentage of IE establishments engaged in e-commerce via internet than those in the content and media sector (10.9%).  Among the ICT industries, ICT trade (31.0%) registered the highest percentage for this indicator, followed by ICT manufacturing (23.7%) and ICT service (12.7%) (Table 5).

Among the regions, the highest percentage utilization of e-commerce via internet was recorded in ARMM, in which one out of three establishments reported purchased of goods or services via internet translating to 33.3 percent (Table 12).

E-commerce can also be undertaken through computer network channels other than the internet. Of the total IE establishments, only 4.6 percent reported having used the medium, in which the ICT sector exhibited higher percentage (5.2%) than the content and media sector (2.5%) (Table 5).

Figure 2 shows the percentage of IE establishments with e-commerce via the internet and computer network channels other than the internet in 2017.

Around 28.0 percent of the total IE establishments do business through mobile phone

Cellular mobile phone is another medium that can be used for doing business.  Of the total IE establishments, 27.7 percent used mobile phones in their business transactions in 2017, higher by 10.3 percentage points than in 2015 at 17.4 percent. ICT sector reported 28.3 percent usage, which is slightly higher than the 25.7 percent reported by the content and media sector. Among the ICT industries, ICT trade topped this kind of business transaction with 35.2 percent. Meanwhile, ICT manufacturing industries had the least with 23.9 percent (Table 5).

Eastern Visayas (40.7%) reported the highest business transaction via cellular mobile phone while ARMM reported the lowest, 16.7 percent (Table 12).

Internet is use extensively in downloading or requesting government forms

About 80.0 percent of the total IE establishments used the internet to download or request government forms, an increase of 3.0 percentage points from the level in 2015 of 77.0 percent. The ICT sector recorded a higher percentage of internet use in downloading or requesting government forms (80.5%) than the content and media sector with 78.4 percent.  Among the ICT industries, ICT manufacturing recorded the highest percentage of establishments performing the activity at 95.2 percent.

Around 79.0 percent of the total IE establishments used the internet to obtain information from government organizations, in which the content and media sector (80.9%) had higher usage than the ICT sector (78.1%). Among the ICT industries, ICT manufacturing had the highest percentage of obtaining information from government organizations at 91.9 percent.

Completing or sending forms online was the third activity mostly done by establishments with internet access (74.0%). ICT manufacturing (88.6%) led other ICT industries in doing this kind of activity.

Making online payments to government organizations was the least among the transactions done by IE establishments with internet access (53.7%).  However, among the ICT industries, most establishments in ICT manufacturing (78.1%) reported this type of transaction (Table 7).

Figure 3 shows the percentage of IE establishments which used the internet in transacting with government agencies in 2017.

About 52.0 percent of the total IE establishments use internet to share or distribute information for business operations

Sharing or distribution of information within the establishment (51.5%) and obtaining information from other organizations (62.2%) were the activities done mostly by IE establishments using the internet in their business operations.  The internet was also used by IE establishments for the following activities:

•   Finance accounting and auditing (48.0%)

•   Internal or external recruitment (44.5%)

•   Sharing or distribution of information with other organizations (45.9%)

•   Staff training (37.7%)

(Sgd.) ROSALINDA P. BAUTISTA
Assistant Secretary
Deputy National Statistician
Sectoral Statistics Office

TECHNICAL NOTES

Background

The 2017 Survey on Information and Communication Technology (SICT) is the seventh in the series of SICT conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). It is a rider to the 2017 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry (ASPBI) conducted in 2018.

Objective of the Survey

The 2017 SICT aims to collect and generate information on the availability, distribution and access/utilization of ICT among establishments in the country.

Specifically, the survey aims to measure the following:

•   component of ICT resources and their utilization by establishments

•   diffusion of ICT into establishments from various sources

•   e-commerce transactions from data on e-commerce sales/revenue and purchases

•   cellular mobile phone business transactions from data on sales/revenue

•   estimate of the number of ICT workers in establishments

•   methods of disposal of ICT equipment

Uses of the ICT Data

The results of the survey will be used in:

•   assessing the use of ICT resources by establishments and the available infrastructure

•   determining how establishments use the internet, including the activities for which it is used

•   determining web presence in establishments

•   determining the revenue generated through e-commerce transactions, and through cellular mobile phones

•   determining the methods of disposal of ICT equipment

Sampling Frame of Establishments

The sampling frame for the 2017 SICT, which was used to draw the sample establishments for the survey, was extracted from the 2017 List ofEstablishments (LE) as of 18 January 2018. Included in the sampling frame for SICT survey were those establishments confined to the formal sector. The formal sector comprised the following:

1. Corporations and partnerships
2. Cooperatives and foundations
3. Single proprietorship with employment of 10 and over
4. Single proprietorship with branches

The initial estimate of the 2017 LE showed that there were 917,582 establishments in operation in the country for the year. Of the total establishments in the formal sector, 228,112 establishments (24.9%) comprised the sampling frame for the 2017 SICT.

Unit of Enumeration

The unit of enumeration of the survey is the establishment. Establishment is an economic unit under a single ownership or control, i.e., under a single legal entity, engaged in one or predominantly one kind of activity at a single fixed location.

Scope and Coverage

The 2017 SICT is undertaken nationwide and covers all industries in the 2017 ASPBI. For the purpose of the survey, these industries are classified as core ICT industriesand non-core ICT Industries. Core ICT industries are industries comprising the Information Economy (IE). For this Special Release, only results from IE industries are presented.

The IE is composed further of the ICT sector and Content and Media sector. The industriesunder each sector are as follows:

a. ICT Sector
     o ICT Manufacturing Industries
     o ICT Trade Industries
     o ICT Service Industries

•   Software publishing

•   Telecommunication services

•   Computer programming, consultancy and related services

•   Data processing, hosting and related activities; web portals

•   Repair of computers and communication equipment

b. Content and Media Sector

      o Publishing activities
      o Motion picture, video and television programme production, sound recording and music publishing activities

The economic activities composing the core ICT industries in the Philippines are listed in Table 1.

Sampling Design

The 2017 SICT utilized a stratified systematic sampling design with five-digit PSIC serving as first stratification variable (industry strata/domain) and employment size (Total Employment (TE)) as the second stratification variable (employment strata).

There are only two employment strata used for the survey: Stratum 1 - TE of 20 and over, and Stratum 2 - TE of less than 20. For non-core ICT industries, only establishments under the first stratum is covered, except those establishments classified as BPM industries under the administrative and support service activities sector,which are completely covered, regardless of employment size.

Sample size and selection

Establishments engaged in the core ICT industries are completely enumerated (100%), regardless of employment size. The establishments classified in the non-core ICT industries and with total employment of 20 and over are covered on a 20 percent sampling basis for each of the industry domain at the national level. The minimum sample size is set to three establishments and maximum of 10 establishments per cell (industry domain).  However, when the total number of establishments (N) in the cell is less than the set minimum sample size, all establishments in that cell are taken as samples.

A total of 9,543 samples were selected for the survey.

Geographic Domain

For 2017 SICT, the geographic domains for the core ICT and BPM industries are the regions; while the non-core ICT industries is at the national level.

Indicators

Some indicators generated from the survey are as follows:

•   proportion of establishments using computer

•   proportion of employees using computers

•   proportion of establishments with internet connection

•   proportion of employees using the internet at work

•   proportion of establishments with Web presence

•   proportion of establishments with Intranet

•   proportion of establishments placing and receiving orders over the internet

•   proportion of establishments using the Internet by type of access and activity

•   proportion of establishments with LAN and Extranet

•   proportion of establishments on methods of disposal of ICT equipment

Reference Period

All information collected in the 2017 SICT refers to calendar year 2017, except for employment which is as of 15 November 2017.

Response Rate

The overall response rate for the 2017 SICT is 91.4 percent (8,727of the 9,543 sample establishments). This included receipts of "good" questionnaires, partially accomplished questionnaires, reports of closed, moved out or out of scope establishments. Out of this total, only 153 establishments responded online.

CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS

Information Economy (IE) is a term used to describe the economic and social value created through the ability to rapidly exchange information at anytime, anywhere to anyone. It is characterized by the intensive use by businesses of ICT for the collection, storage, processing and transmission of information. The use of ICT is supported by supply of ICT products from an ICT-producing sector and through trade.

IE is comprised of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Sector and the Content and Media Sector.

Industries under ICT Sector are industries which fulfill and/or enable, by electronic means, the processing, communication, transmission and display of information. It excludes the industries which create the information.

Industries under Content and Media Sector are those which produce goods and services primarily intended to inform, educate and/or entertain humans through mass communication media. These industries are engaged in the production, publishing and/or distribution of content (information, cultural and entertainment products), where content corresponds to an organized message intended for human beings.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as defined by the Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) is "the totality of electronic means to collect, store, process and present information to end-users in support of their activities". It consists, among others, of computer systems, office systems and consumer electronics, as well as network information infrastructure, the components of which include the telephone system, the Internet, fax machines and computers.

ICT Resources are equipment, knowledge and human resources used to support electronic business/manufacturing processes and the conduct of electronic commerce transactions. It includes computer and peripheral equipment, systems and application software, network channels, telecommunication equipment, routers, satellite and other ICT hardware used in electronic business and commerce transactions, ICT support services and ICT workers.

Network channel is a collection of computers connected to each other that allows them to communicate with each other, and share resources and information. All networks are made up of basic hardware building blocks to interconnect network nodes, such as Network Interface Cards (NICs), Bridges, Hubs, Switches, and Routers.

Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that interchange data by packet switching using the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). It is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other technologies. The internet carries various information resources and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer and file sharing, online gaming, and the inter-linked hypertext documents and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW).

Intranet is a set of networks, using the Internet Protocol and IP-based tools such as web browsers and file transfer applications, that is, under the control of a single administrative entity. That administrative entity closes the intranet to all but specific, authorized users. Most commonly, an intranet is the internal network of an organization.

Extranet is a network or internetwork that is limited in scope to a single organization or entity but which also has limited connections to the networks of one or more other usually, but not necessarily, trusted organizations or entities (e.g. a company's customers may be given access to some part of its intranet creating in this way an extranet, while at the same time the customers may not be considered 'trusted' from a security standpoint).

Wide Area Network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries. Less formally, a WAN is a network that uses routers and public communications links. The largest and most well-known example of a WAN is the internet. A WAN is a data communications network that covers a relatively broad geographic area (i.e. one city to another and one country to another country) and that often uses transmission facilities provided by common carriers, such as telephone companies.

Local Area Network (LAN) is a computer network covering a small physical area, like a home, office, or small group of buildings, such as a school, or an airport. Current LANs are most likely to be based on Ethernet technology. Each workgroup can get to its local printer. Note that the printers are not accessible from outside their workgroup.

E-commerce or electronic commerce refers to the sale of goods and services where an order is placed by the buyer, price and terms of sale are negotiated over the Internet Protocol-based networks, an extranet, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) network, or other on-line system.

Web site is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or more web servers, usually accessible via the internet. All publicly accessible websites are seen collectively as constituting the "World Wide Web". The pages of a website can usually be accessed from a common root URL called the homepage, and usually reside on the same physical server.