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Balanga City Mayor Joet Garcia (2nd from left) and Bataan Governor Abet Garcia (5th from left) sign a memorandum of agreement with Smart Communications, Inc. to provide free Wi-Fi throughout Balanga.
The City of Balanga began with a vision to be a university town, similar to Oxford or Cambridge. It focused on initiatives that would transform the city into a safe-haven for students to learn and grow in, and has even been recognized internationally for the successful implementation of its Anti-Smoking campaign.
However, it was faced with the problem of providing quality jobs for the students that it produced. To address this, Balanga refined its vision to focus on becoming an emerging destination for knowledge based businesses in the Philippines, and sought to build an investor and business friendly environment.
The city had already shown its strength in public-private partnerships through the renovation of Plaza Mayor de Balanga and its surrounding buildings, and most recently, the city government and Smart Communications, Inc. formalized its partnership to provide free Wi-Fi in Balanga.
The city government argues that information and data are the most important commodity in the current tech-driven era. Aside from city-wide free Wi-Fi, Balanga seeks to create an informative walkway display along one of the most prominent streets in the city.
To learn more about Balanga’s transformation journey and its initiatives, visit http://cityofbalanga.gov.ph/.
To contact the writer of this story, send an email to MJ Castro at [email protected].
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