DESPITE its low number of Peza-accredited business processes outsourcing hubs in Davao City, ICT players has remained confident the sector has a brighter future in Davao City.

"The construction of all these BPO spaces is a show of confidence in the city's ICT sector," Lizabel Holganza, president of ICT Davao, said.

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In recent years, the city has witnessed the spur of growth of IT-BPO services with multiple locations leveraging their strength to become the outsourcing destination for global business processes.

Nationwide, revenues from the BPO industry has already breached the $4.5 billion mark.

"The industry here is still in its infancy stage, and there are still a lot of speculations going on," Holganza said.

Davao City is among the 2008 Top 10 Philippine IT-BPO Destinations, having been ranked by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) as Number 4 out of 37 Philippine cities in the 1st BPO Summit last December of 2008.

Despite this seemingly enviable position, Davao City only has 1 percent market share as against the industry's total market. But in the past years, Davao City has seen a 56 percent growth in number of IT-BPO jobs in the city.

In the wake of this development, ICT Davao Inc. will convene stakeholders for the ICT Summit 2009, with the theme "Roadmap 2015: Empowering Davao through Information and Communications Technology."

"This summit will bring together the private and public sector in an effort to create a blueprint for how we will realize industry targets," Holganza said.

The two-day ICT Summit hopes to gather around 250 or more participants from the local and national government, industry and its suppliers, academe teaching professionals, potential investors, IT entrepreneurs, and other stakeholders.

The key topics in the plenary sessions include the Philippine Next Wave Cities, the Philippine Industry outlook, and Davao's Roadmap 2015, which will showcase its medium term development plan for ICT and IT-BPO industry. (CPM)