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Thursday, January 19, 2006
IT team eyes $2.2B income from call centers
By Roberto L. Bacasong
THE Bacolod IT team chaired by City Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue is targeting $2.2 billion in investments within this year with the entry of the information technology companies in Bacolod City.
Earlier, the group from Teleperformance, a US-based call center company, finalized its plan of putting up the first call center in this city.
Sigue, in an interview, said they are moving ahead in order to reach their target this year.
Her target is aimed at bringing Bacolod city ahead of Cebu in terms of IT investments and facilities.
The lady councilor said not only will the call centers be established here but other IT-related jobs like medical transcription, Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO), customer care, IT sourcing software, publishing, software development, eLearning Digital Animation/visualization, multimedia & gaming, engineering & design and shared services will also be generated.
She said that IT development in the country is one of the major flagship programs of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Batapa-Sigue added that the establishment of call centers in the country is going on an upward trend.
And since Cebu is doing good in being in the middle of this trend, Bacolod might as well be there to get on in the game.
"Cebu is so immense. In 2000, the mayor of Cebu held an IT summit. Now, they have more than 20 call center companies. Even the Philippine Economic Zone Authority realized that there is a big thing happening in Cebu," said Sigue.
The councilor said the IT team has formed the Information Technology Schools Network (ITSNET), which aims to strengthen the partnership between the City and the academe.
She said the ITSNET is composed of the Visayan Maritime Academy (VMA), La Saltech, University of St. La Salle-Bacolod and the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos among others.
The councilor, in her presentation, said the Philippines is next to India in terms of IT, next are Malaysia and China.
She said India has a bigger population and the level of education is much higher compared to our country.
"The Philippines is catching up because of our English proficiency," said Sigue.
Sigue said according to Commissioner Damian Domingo Mapa of the Commission of Information and Communications Technology (CICT) Bacolod is included among the localities in the country that offer potentials for IT.
The other cities are Legaspi, Tacloban, Davao, Baguio, Cabanatuan, Dagupan, Iloilo, Sta. Rosa, Taguig and Parañaque.
She said the IT locators or companies usually require that the city, where they are going to locate, will have the human capital, telecom infrastructures, real estate, vendors support, LGU/community support, power infrastructures, transport infrastructures, incentives and the quality of life.
Sigue further said Region VI is producing 34,455 graduates, which is higher to Region VII with 32,430 graduates every year. In Negros Occidental and Bacolod City alone, the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) revealed that there were 14,803 graduates last year.
(January 19, 2006 issue)
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