Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Filipinos can ‘exploit’ Japan’s aging IT labor
Information technology (IT) engineers and software companies in the Philippines can take advantage of Japan’s aging population and cater to the Japanese market through offshore development business.
Japan External Trade Organization expert and chief executive officer of Chinasoft-Tokyo Co. Atsuo Miyazaki said Japan’s aging society and shortage of engineers are among the factors that limit the country’s capacity to meet the demand for IT services.
The software industry in Japan currently has “steady” sales, he said. However, it has to face the challenge and go for global sourcing to improve its productivity and enhance its pool of skilled IT engineers, he added.
Low motivation
“Japan’s younger generation also now has low motivation to go for the IT business. Most of them now want comfortable lifestyles and are not as hardworking as IT engineers should be,” Miyazaki said.
He added that Japan looks for foreign engineers that are skilled in software like Java and C or C++.
As of 2004, the IT service industry in Japan, composed of 5,217 companies with 569,500 workers, recorded revenues of up to $12.2 billion, he said.
Japan had 924 IT engineers from China; Korea, 451; India, 91; Philippines, 53; and Vietnam, 17.
Over 1,060 of them are programmers, 225 are software engineers and 16 are consultants, Miyazaki said.
IT firms in China, India, Philippines and Vietnam provide outsourced services for Japanese companies.
China, with more than 10,000 software companies, makes 60 percent of export to Japan’s IT industry while India, with 3,300 software companies, provide four percent.
The Philippines, with 300 software companies, makes a “very small” export while Vietnam, with 570 software companies, aims to make 10 percent by 2010, Miyazaki said.
While China, because of its large pool of aggressive IT engineers, can answer the demand of the Japanese market, Miyazaki said he lauds Vietnam’s IT sector for its stability, cheap and hardworking labor.
Advantage
The Philippines, he said, has the advantage of having a “bright, flexible and faithful” workforce.
The IT sector in China, India, Vietnam and the Philippines, however, have shortcomings.
China does not have enough senior software engineers while India has difficulty understanding Japanese culture and business style, apart from its distance to Japan.
Miyazaki said Vietnam is also challenged as it lacks human resources and poor IT infrastructure.
The Philippines, on the other hand, has the disadvantage of being known as a “dangerous” country. (ALC)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 15, 2006 issue)
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