COUNTRY FOCUS: PHILIPPINES
With over a million Overseas
Filipino Workers becoming
displaced or unemployed during the
COVID-19 pandemic, the Overseas
Workers Welfare Administration
urgently sought to respond to their
calls for help. Thanks to its partnership
with NTT Data Philippines, which has
now been recognised by Microsoft, it
was able to provide fast, secure and
contactless financial assistance.
Providing fast and secure
financial assistance to
Filipino ‘heroes’
Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) are
among the largest expat workforce
in the world and their contributions
account for 10% of the Philippines’ GDP.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, over a
million of these OFWs have been displaced
and made unemployed.
The Overseas Workers Welfare
Administration (OWWA) responded to the
people’s call for help through the DOLE-
AKAP (Embrace) initiative which provides a
one-time financial assistance of Php10,000
or US$200 for displaced land-based and
sea-based OFWs.
Since OWWA partnered with NTT DATA to
start its Digital Transformation journey years
ago, hosting its applications in Microsoft
Azure, OWWA was able to optimize its
existing assets across both on-premises and
cloud sources, and migrate key services to
cloud. As proof of the partnership’s success
and its timely and immediate response
to the plight of the OFWs, NTT DATA
Philippines was one of the organizations
recently recognized by Microsoft, beating
3,000 entries from 100 countries, with
the Community Response Award – a new
global award category that recognizes
partner organizations providing innovative
support or services to customers and
the community. This year, the award
acknowledges innovative solutions to the
challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through the technology solution provided
by NTT Data using Microsoft Azure,
OWWA was able to provide fast, secure
and contactless financial assistance for
displaced OFWs due to COVID-19 via the
DOLE-AKAP (Embrace) portal.
Andres Ortola, Country General Manager,
Microsoft Philippines, said: “OFWs embody
the heart and soul of the Filipino nation:
resilience and sacrifice. They contribute
so much to the Philippines and through
this program we are able to support them
in return. We’re very much privileged to
be of service to these modern-day heroes
and to empower the Philippines during this
challenging time. On behalf of Secretary
Bello, I’d like to congratulate the OWWA
teams and our cloud partner NTT DATA
Philippines for this global recognition
from Microsoft.”
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