Friday, February 29, 2008 Study to determine city preparedness on ICT set By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE chair of the technical working group (TWG) of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Task Force, which was constituted in 2006, said Wednesday that the group is preparing for the conduct of study or a survey on where Davao City is good at in terms of ICT.
In an interview during the conduct of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Property Forum held at the Davao Convention and Trade Center Wednesday, Roberto Teo, chair of the ICT Task Force, said the study will determine how ready Davao City is to become the best ICT hub not only in Mindanao, but nationwide.
"We need to have specific documents where we want to be for the city of Davao. We need to have a study and a plan to sustain the ICT industry. Through the survey, we will know where Davao City is good at," said Teo, who also heads the Davao City Investment and Promotions Center (DCIPC).
He added that the conduct of the survey will entail spending a lot of money, but he was quick to say that the ICT Task Force is looking for funding institutions to provide funds for the survey.
"The study will take around eight months to one year. It will determine what are the graduates of the city, how many engineers, computer science personnel, or English language graduates does the city produce," Teo said.
He added that as the chair of the ICT Task Force, he will make recommendations so that the group can start the survey by the first or second week of March.
The ICT Task Force was formed in 2006 through an Executive Order (EO) from the City Government of Davao.
Meanwhile, Teo, in his presentation during the forum, identified a few reasons why some BPO investors are hesitant to locate in Davao City.
First are the negative perception and travel advisories that say Mindanao, of which Davao is a part, is not safe for the conduct of business, and the difficulties faced by some ICT-related companies in looking for sites and locations.
"These are the concerns that we should really look into. The topic on the image problem, anyway, should not be tackled in this forum, but with the media. As to the difficulty of some ICT related companies in looking for locations in the city, I should say that we have supporters in the council who understand the importance of the ICT industry. Through the local government, an EO was passed in 2006 to constitute the ICT Task Force in order to create an ICT Development Plan," Teo said.
