Tholons: Bacolod jumps to 89th spot in top 100 cities for global services

BACOLOD. Negrense students attending the Freelancers Fair and Digital Careers Expo at The District Northpoint-Ayala Mall in Talisay City recently, which is one measure of BNEFIT and other industry partners to expose the youth to digital career opportunities and develop strategies to boost their digital skills. (Contributed photo)
BACOLOD. Negrense students attending the Freelancers Fair and Digital Careers Expo at The District Northpoint-Ayala Mall in Talisay City recently, which is one measure of BNEFIT and other industry partners to expose the youth to digital career opportunities and develop strategies to boost their digital skills. (Contributed photo)

FROM its previous 12-place slide in 2017, Bacolod City has made a big jump in this year’s Tholons Services Globalization Index (TSGI) after placing 89th in the world’s top 100 cities for global services.

The city is eight notches higher from its 97th place ranking last year, Tholons’ research report and ranking of the Top 50 Digital Nations and Top 100 Super Cities for 2018 showed.

Tholons International, the leader in global outsourcing locations rankings, reported that Bacolod was among the six localities in the Philippines which entered and inched on its list of top 100 outsourcing destinations in the world.

Others are Manila which moved up from number four to second spot; Cebu from 12th to 11th place; Davao from 85th to 75th place; Sta. Rosa in Laguna from number 100 to 87th; and Iloilo which returned to the list at 92nd place.

In 2017, the Bacolod City slid down to 97th spot from 85th place in 2016.

In 2015, Tholons has ranked the city at number 86, seven notches higher than its 2014 ranking of 93rd, particularly for outsourcing and offshoring.

It has made a record as rank 100 in 2010, and eventually leveled up to number 94 in 2013.

Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, executive director of Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology (BNEFIT), on Wednesday said the organization and all its partners welcome with pride and gratefulness the improvement of the city in the said global service ranking.

Batapa-Sigue said it is a big feat for a mid-size city like Bacolod to be among the destinations named under the Top 100 Super Cities in this year’s Tholons report.

“This is a result of our strong government-academe and industry collaboration, constant engagement with schools and talent development stakeholders, and grit and determination to continuously challenge and redesign our own strategies to adapt to the requirements of global digital services,” she said.

Batapa-Sigue added that “this feat is also because of the support of the community and key public and private organizations and institutions especially our growing startup and digital workers community.”

The BNEFIT official recalled that last year, out of nine cities already in the list for 2016, Bacolod City barely survived because of the new criteria such as digital and innovation.

In 2017, TSGI’s ranking was published with traditional factors such as talent, skill and quality, business catalyst, cost, infrastructure, and risk and quality of life at 80 percent weightage, with 20 percent weightage for digital transformation.

This year’s ranking puts traditional factors with 75 percent weightage and digital with 25 percent weightage.

Batapa-Sigue said that the city previously measured low for digital innovation just enough to be still in the Top 100 Super Cities.

But this year, it measured more than double in this criteria, from a score of four to 8.5.

This year’s rank was fueled by digital innovation, Batapa-Sigue stressed.

“I am so proud of the efforts of all the members of BNEFIT. It is our 10th year this year and we are truly grateful to our public and private sector partners including the city and provincial governments, schools and companies and most especially our tech-startup communities,” she added.

Moreover, the global advisory firm in 2017 introduced for the first time “innovation, startup ecosystem and digital transformation” as key components of TSGI.

Tholons consider digital and innovation as the lifeline of today’s businesses.

The parameters for such criteria include open innovation ecosystem, number of startups, startup diversity and maturity, innovative policies and incentives, unicorns, cyber security, global digital competitiveness, and digital literacy rate, among others.

For Top 50 Digital Nations, the Philippines has regained its second spot this year from being third next to India and China at first and second places, respectively, in 2017.

For his part, BNEFIT president John Dave Dueñas said the landscape of Bacolod City and Negros Occidental has changed for the past years, from a vast agricultural dependent province to a highly urbanized community.

Dueñas said the change was brought by the presence of ICT-enabled jobs, which affected the economy. It increased the power to purchase of the population and adding vibrancy to how Negrenses lived.

“For Bacolod to be pulled up from rank 97 to 89, is a validation that our city is doing its best to be competitive in the aspect of talent development, infrastructure and cost of doing business,” he said, adding that this means that “we can attract more locators, more businesses and have a platform wherein our people do not need to leave the city for opportunities.”

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