INNOVATE. COLLABORATE.

COMMUNICATE

Through the years, data plays a vital role in the day-to-day existence of people and organizations
alike. The data revolution involving big data and new technologies is advancing very fast. With that, the
Philippine Statistical System is gradually switching from traditional to new methods and models to accurately
measure progress and produce useful and reliable data for planning.
Statistics plays a vital role in every field of human activity. It helps us in determining the existing
position of per capita income, unemployment, population growth rates, housing, schooling, and medical
facilities in a country.
Statistics teaches us how to gather, organize, and analyze numerical facts, which we call data. Data
bombards us in everyday life. Most of us associate statistics with the bits of data that appear in news reports:
baseball batting averages, imported car sales, the latest poll of the president's popularity, and the average
high temperature for today. Yet the usefulness of statistics goes far beyond these everyday examples.
Doctors must understand the origin and trustworthiness of the data that appear in medical journals if
they are to offer their patients the most effective treatment. Politicians rely on data from polls of public opinion.
Farmers study data from field trials of new crop varieties. Engineers gather data on the quality and reliability
of manufactured products.
New innovations have hugely increased the quantity of data and the possibilities available to people
and institutions who want to collect and use it. The challenge, and the opportunity, is to make this new world
of data useful and useable to improve people’s lives and it is a key to a better and greater nation.
New technologies have made it easier and cheaper to collect, store, analyze, use, and disseminate
data. But while the potential for vastly more data-driven innovation exists, many organizations have been
slow to adopt these technologies. Policymakers around the world should do more to spur data-driven
innovation in both the public and private sectors.
Such innovations offer exciting new opportunities, but also throw up big challenges around privacy,
public trust, and the potential abuses of data. The increasing use of internet-enabled devices with sensors
will provide still more opportunities to improve the way services are delivered.
Data innovation can help us solve the biggest problems facing the Philippines. The country is already
one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and we can continue this rise if we address some of the
long-running inefficiencies that have plagued our nation – a task that data innovation is naturally suited for.
Take the case of traffic. When we speak of fixing traffic in Manila and other cities, we usually do so in
the context of adding things, be they carpool lanes, toll roads, highway on-ramps. Applying data innovation
to road congestion is far less resource-intensive than adding infrastructure.
After collecting data on traffic patterns in the metro, for example, we can find ways to optimize usage
of our on-ramps, so that vehicles do not congest only a few of these entry points but distribute more evenly
in usage.
Mobile technology and data modernization services are also drivers of information that can empower
citizens, be it apps that tell farmers when to optimally plant crops, micro-loans for fledgling enterprises or
medical information for front-line health practitioners in remote settings. The use of digital data derived from
social media, web content, transaction data, and the use of GPS devices are just some of data innovations.
With better policies and programs based on quality statistics that are produced through effective
innovations, the Filipino people will be assured of the achievement of the country’s long-term vision of a
simple and comfortable life for all.
If oil was the fuel of the twentieth-century economy, data will be the fuel of the twenty-first century.
Indeed, by enabling people to better understand the complex world around us and to use that understanding
to make better decisions, large and small, data has the potential to drive innovation in a broad range of areas,
improving both economic productivity and quality of life.
We, both as a provider and as a consumer of data, hold data innovation within our hands. Data
innovation helps make us better. Data innovation is the key to our nation’s future. Data can be used to make
people healthy. A simple innovation in the collection, sharing and use of data in the government will take us
a long way in improving the state of our nation, and these data will be the source of solutions that will be in
our nation’s sake. But at the end of the day, the goal is to turn these data into insights and insights into action.
The development of our country still starts within ourselves.