MANILA - The Philippines has the slowest internet speed in the Asia Pacific region, global tech company Akamai Technologies said Thursday.

Average connection speed grew 44 percent in 2016 to 4.5 Mbps, but still lagged the region, which was led by South Korea with 26.1 Mbps, according to Akamai's State of the Internet Report.

However, "there is reason for optimism" in the Philippines as "the new administration has made faster Internet speeds a national priority."

President Rodrigo Duterte, who has pressed local telecommunications providers to improve their services, approved this week the establishment of a national broadband network.

Last year, rivals PLDT Inc and Globe Telecom bought the telecommunications assets of San Miguel Corp, saying this would help speed up their data offerings.

The average global connection speed grew to 7 Mbps, according to the study.

"The upward trends are encouraging as businesses create and deliver even richer experiences for bigger audiences across the Internet, but accentuate the need for organizations to optimize those experiences for the myriad connected devices their customers are using," according to the report.

Venezuela, which is embroiled in an economic crisis, had one of the slowest average connections on mobile at 2.9 Mbps.