Carlos G. Dominguez
Secretary of Finance
Good morning.
Before I start my speech, I have to make a confession. First, I am a very happy client of Converge these past 3 years and I’m very enthusiastic in suggesting to my friends to sign up for Converge. Second, about a year ago, I had the occasion of having a long meeting with Tim Geithner, the former Treasury Secretary of President Obama and currently he is, I believe, the president of Warburg Pincus. During our conversation, one of the things he asked me was what I thought about his investment in Converge and I told Tim, I said, ‘I’m sure you will make money out of that investment.’ So I’m going to write him later to tell him that my prediction came true.
Mr. Emilio Aquino, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Mr. Ramon Monzon, President of the Philippine Stock Exchange; members of the board of directors and management of the PSE; Mr. Dennis Anthony Uy, Founder and CEO of the Converge ICT Solutions Incorporated; Mrs. Grace Uy, Co-Founder and President of Converge, I think also the real boss; distinguished guests: good morning.
I am happy that Converge has decided to move ahead with this initial public offering. This is a strong vote of confidence in our economy’s capacity to bounce back strongly after the difficulties wrought by the pandemic. This will also be a big contribution to the efforts to reset and rebound the Philippine economy.
Over the past seven months, strict quarantine measures had been enforced by the government to save lives and protect communities. All of us had to rapidly adjust to remote working conditions using digital technologies. Our children have had to shift to web-based learning.
The current pandemic has also magnified the importance of a faster transition to digital transactions. The government is turning this crisis into an opportunity to accelerate the digital transformation of our processes. We aim to drastically cut red tape, hasten the delivery of services to the people, and hopefully, curb corruption.
At this moment, digital technologies have never been more important in our lives. Now, more than ever, we have become heavily reliant on fast and dependable internet services.
This initial public offering, therefore, is very, very timely. It will provide Converge with the means to rapidly upgrade its equipment and improve its operations.
The whole nation relies on services that companies like Converge offer to continue our youth’s education, save enterprises, and retain and create jobs for the Filipino workers.
I encourage Converge to use the proceeds of this public offering to continue investing in network improvements to serve more Filipinos nationwide.
We will count on your company to help us bridge the digital divide as we purposely move forward to a new economy.
I wish Converge a successful initial public offering. We all look forward to better internet services in the coming days.
Before I conclude, I just want to mention that this week, aside from Converge listing here, there is a company that is being listed in the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges called Ant Financial. About two years ago, I had the opportunity to spend half a week with Mr. Jack Ma in Hangzhou where he described Ant Financial, and today or this week, they are launching the largest ever IPO in history and the largest ever IPO outside of New York and again, this is, I guess, a digital week for IPOs. And I again congratulate Converge and we look forward to better internet services in the coming days.
Thank you.
-@@@-
Copyright © 2021 Department of Finance