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Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Not everyone in IT building-ecozone to get perks
By Cherry T. Lim with Jessica B. Natad
THE government is doing its part to encourage investment in information and communications technology (ICT).
“We changed the rules of Peza (Philippine Economic Zone Authority) and BOI (Board of Investments) so that rules that used to be applicable only to manufacturing projects are applied to IT (information technology),” said Manuel Roxas II in a visit to Cebu before he quit as trade secretary last week.
This means a building can now be proclaimed an IT park or economic zone, so locators can enjoy benefits like income tax holidays.
However, Roxas emphasized that “only those engaged in IT in the ecozone have incentives, not the building owner or the other tenants,” he said during the recent e-Services Forum at Cebu City Marriott Hotel.
The government is supporting IT because of its potential for job creation.
Last year, a $300-million manufacturing facility in Batangas registered with the BOI hired only 250 people because it was highly automated, Roxas said.
In contrast, for a much lower $25 million investment, call center facility PeopleSupport has already given jobs to 3,000 people.
In Manila, about 100 floors of building space have been taken up in the last two years by the ICT industry alone.
He urged Cebu to be prepared with places to house new investors in the ICT industry, saying, “If you have no place to house them, it becomes a problem.”
Cebu has one IT Park, the Asiatown IT Park. PeopleSupport is among its locators.
Other firms in the ICT industry are not located in the park, however.
For instance, Bigfoot decided to buy its own lot on F. Ramos St. and build an 11-story building.
Bigfoot general manager Jun Mercado earlier said the operational costs of the company would still be high even if it located inside Asiatown.
The May 2004 elections are not seen to affect the entry of investors in the ICT industry.
Bong Borja, chairman of the Contact Federation Philippines and president of PeopleSupport (Philippines) Inc., said: “We don’t really care so much who the president is. We have worked with (former president Joseph) Estrada, (President) Arroyo. The support we got for our industry never wavered.
“Our only concern is the policies, the aftermath. We don’t want to see another Edsa 4 or 5.”
(December 16, 2003 issue)
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