As global digital transformation accelerates, the call for digital sovereignty—the ability of nations and organizations to maintain full control over their data—has gained urgency among Philippine policymakers and business leaders.
At the 51st Philippine Business Conference and Expo (PBC&E), Converge ICT Solutions Inc. CEO and co-founder Dennis Anthony Uy joined industry experts in a plenary session on digital sovereignty, emphasizing the need for policy frameworks that would allow the Philippines to safeguard strategic interests while empowering citizens in a trusted digital environment.
Converge underscored the importance of developing sovereign cloud infrastructure, enabling government and enterprises to store and process sensitive data under Philippine jurisdiction. The company continues to collaborate with global technology leaders such as Google, Amazon Web Services, Naver, Foxconn, and Tencent to build secure and world-class digital solutions locally.
Naver Cloud CEO Yuwon Kim highlighted that “to preserve each nation’s diversity and heritage, there is a need for sovereignty and AI,” adding that “Sovereign AI means developing and operating AI that deeply understands a nation’s culture, history and values by leveraging their own data and infrastructure.”
Foxconn’s Lin Shi-Hao, leader for Southeast Asia, reinforced the company’s expanding role in artificial intelligence, saying, “What does Foxconn have to do with AI? Everything. Foxconn is at the forefront of producing the high-performance AI data servers that power the world’s most sophisticated AI applications and data centers.”
Meanwhile, Kenneth Siow, regional director for Southeast Asia and general manager of Tencent Cloud International, affirmed the company’s partnership with Converge, noting shared priorities in cloud services, big data, and AI development.
Industry leaders agree that sovereign cloud systems—which operate independently or in hybrid form with global providers but maintain strict controls on data location, access, and governance—are critical to ensuring national security and compliance.
This is particularly vital for sectors handling sensitive information such as government, finance, healthcare, and education. Storing and managing data locally not only ensures compliance with Philippine law but also strengthens public trust in digital systems and services.
At the close of the event, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) passed a resolution urging the national government to accelerate digital transformation by embracing emerging technologies, investing in broadband infrastructure, enhancing technical capacity, and fortifying data governance laws—steps viewed as essential for achieving true digital sovereignty and sustaining competitiveness in the digital economy.
