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Friday, January 24, 2003
Outsourcing players want more government support
By Cherry T. Lim
MORE than half the players in the Philippine outsourcing industry are not satisfied with the support the government is currently giving them.
Instead, they suggest that the government put its money where its mouth is, showing its seriousness in supporting the sector by using information technology (IT) in its own operations and giving Filipino–owned companies priority in bagging government IT projects.
These are among the results of a study conducted on the Philippine outsourcing industry by www.digitalfilipino.com,
an electronic commerce research site on the Internet owned by Janette Toral, founder of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society.
The site, which makes monthly statistical reports on various facets of the IT and e-commerce industry available to subscribers, interviewed 24 companies from the software development, call center, animation, medical transcription, graphic design and back-office operations for its latest survey.
Among the other things the industry players found wanting were investment and tax incentives for start-up and small and medium enterprises, international promotion and endorsement of such firms, faster Internet connection at reduced cost, and lower rates on communication and electricity.
Although some sectors welcomed the efforts of the government to provide incentives to the IT players through the Board of Investments and the opening of IT parks, they said these efforts tended to favor the big firms.
Small firms find transferring to an IT park expensive. In addition, they fear that locating in an IT park will make it easy for their employees to move from one company to another.
Some 21 percent of the respondents, however, were satisfied with the way the government was promoting the medical transcription and call center industries and its efforts to improve the quality of skilled workers.
Ninety-two percent of the respondents were satisfied with the quality of the labor force in meeting their outsourcing requirements, but 42 percent expressed apprehensions about the long-term competitiveness of the workforce, citing the unabated migration of Filipino IT workers to other countries and the deterioration of the English language as well as the technical and analytical skills of new graduates.
(January 24, 2003 issue)
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