MANILA -- The Philippines should open up telecommunications to foreign players if it wants to upgrade internet speeds in the country, the head of the European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines said Wednesday. 

As the Department of Finance and the Department of Information and Communications Technology push for competing strategies to establish a third telco player, ECCP president Guenter Taus said a more effective strategy would be to simply let foreign players in. 

"Let this be a real playing field for everyone and not just for local companies," Taus said in an interview with ANC's Market Edge. 

The Constitution bans foreign firms from having full ownership of telcos in the country, which means the third major telco player needs to be a partnership between foreign and local companies.

While the Philippines has slowest internet speed in ASEAN, the country is second to Singapore in terms of cost of access, he said.

This article was originally published July 4, 2018 at the ABS CBN News Website.