Friday, September 21, 2007 DTI targets P1B investment in ICT
THE regional office of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the Davao Region is targeting a total of P1 billion investment for the information and communications technology (ICT) sector until 2010.
DTI-Southern Mindanao Assistant Secretary Merly M. Cruz, in her presentation regarding the Davao City ICT Situationer at the Royal Mandaya Hotel on Tuesday, said the region is also aiming to generate a total of 16,000 jobs in terms of ICT until 2010.
Cruz said that in order to attain these targets, the region has organized an ICT Cluster Plan until 2010, which includes the preparation of the Cluster Plan through series of consultative meetings and workshops with the ICT stakeholders in the region.
She added the region also adopted the industry cluster approach as strategy in the development of the ICT sector and even organized an ICT cluster team.
"It has also strengthened partnership with local government units (LGUs) and other government agencies like the Tesda (Technical Education and Skills Development Authority), Ched (Commission on Higher Education), and DepEd (Department of Education) in implementing ICT projects and programs," she said.
Cruz said Davao City was declared as an ICT hub in the country by the National Telecommunications Office.
"Davao City also ranks high as an attractive ICT investment location by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology," Cruz added.
At present, Cruz said there are a total of 35 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies existing in Davao City.
BPO companies comprise a total of nine call center firms, five medical transcription companies, 15 software development companies, five web development companies, and one graphics and engineering company.
The city also has 22 business process outsourcing (BPO) training facilities. Fifteen facilities were identified in the software development training institutions, four in the medical transcription training schools, and three in the call center training hubs. (JGRS)
