MANILA - Bringing digital payments to the mainstream is a "challenge" for Southeast Asia, where many still transact using cash and checks, PLDT Inc president Manuel Pangilinan said Tuesday.

The objective of digital technology is to "make people's lives easier," Pangilinan told the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit.

Pangilinan said government, corporations and non-government groups should "inculcate the culture and the practice of using digital methods."

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"Digital is upon us. There are quite a number of issues with respect to how we develop the internet in the Philippines, much more within ASEAN," Pangilinan said.

"The whole point of all of this digital pivot is we have to do it. We have no choice," he said.

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