Thursday, August 21, 2008 ‘Silicon Valley possible’
AMID the lack of qualified people who meet the labor demands of business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, an official of a Cebu-based foundation remains bullish about Cebu’s potential to be a Silicon Valley or an “innovation island” and contribute to the country’s economic growth through technological entrepreneurship.
Bonifacio Belen, executive director of the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (Cedf-it), explained that Cebuanos possess the creativity and entrepreneurship skills that are waiting to be tapped by industry players.
“We just need to believe that we can do it. We have the stuff. If Taiwan (is successful) in the information technology sector with many Filipinos contributing to it, then we can do it. It took Taiwan 20 years, maybe it will take us 21 years,” he said.
Belen was one of speakers in the Sun.Star Economic Forum 2008 at the Cebu Parklane Hotel yesterday, which focused on prospects and challenges facing the BPO industry in Cebu.
Belen said directing Cebu toward becoming a Silicon Valley “requires many things” and “would take time.”
Among the requirements, he said, would be development work that will not only focus on creating jobs for the people but also on tapping the knowledge and creativity of the country’s human resources.
Private sector
Belen also said that to address the many challenges in the industry—such as staff turnover, personnel retention and lack of expert training in management, among others—and achieve “breakthrough growth,” the private sector must lead the implementation of Cebu’s information and communication technology (ICT) strategy.
In his presentation, called “Fast Forward: A Look at The BPOs of Tomorrow,” he cited the recent Global Services-Tholons study that named Cebu City as the fourth among the top 50 emerging outsourcing cities in the world.
He said Cebu is second only to India, in terms of information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services.
At the end of last year, the IT-BPO industry in Cebu employed roughly 300,000 people and generated $4 billion in revenues, posting a 50 percent positive growth rate against 2006.
Cebu has an enormous growth opportunity in ICT worldwide, which is expected to expand to $110 billion to $130 billion by 2010, he said.
He said he believes that the country has the potential to achieve $12 billion in revenues by 2010, deliver economic gains to numerous stakeholders and employ about 600,000 to 700,000 people.
“The challenge for Cebu is to serve a substantial share or 20 percent of this national budget,” he said.
Belen also named Dagupan, General Santos, Leyte Province, Subic/Olongapo, Tagbilaran, Tuguegarao and Urdaneta as among the areas that are already ready to be part of country’s cyber corridor.
He said BPO companies will go wherever the human resources are, so Cebu must prepare its work force to attract more investments. (NRC)
