GROWING by leaps and bounds, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry in Davao City will continue to take a big leap, providing economic development and generating employment in this part of the country.
With the recent rank bagged by the city for the year 2015 as the top 66th business process outsourcing (BPO) destination of the Top 100 in the world, Davao City’s ICT industry is indeed moving on an upward trend.
Tholons, a services globalization and investment advisory firm, recognized Davao City anew as one of the biggest movers in its 2016 annual survey of the top 100 outsourcing destinations in the world, ranking 66th worldwide, some three places higher than last year's 69th place.
“For 2016 onward, we remain very confident and bullish about the industry as we continue to remain very active, to be able to jump for three ranks is really quite an achievement for Davao, being up a notch higher is very difficult to achieve because in the past three years we are ranked alternately 69th or 70th place,” Samuel Matunog, president of the ICT-Davao Inc. said.
He emphasized that the success of the multi-billion local ICT industry is a collaborative effort of various industry players including the BPO companies, Software industry and the mixed-used development property players which are all doing its efforts in attracting BPO locators.
“After absorbing half of Philippine BPO demand in 2014 and the reported increase of (Full-Time Equivalents) FTEs of over 33,000, the latest rise in Tholons ranking indicates that the multi-stakeholder approach in addressing the demands of the city’s ICT industry continues to bear fruit,” he said.
At present, the BPO Association of Davao, Inc (ADI) already reached over 35 members. BPO ADI is an association of big multinational companies operating in the city and the small-medium homegrown BPO companies. Also, the association of the Davao Software Industry has doubled its members this year to 40 members, an indication of development and expansion.
“BPO in Davao has grown largely by leaps and bounds, we’ve seen the coming of big companies such as Teleperformance, Convergeny’s, Ibex, VXI and the newly-opened Excellence Global Solutions (EGS),” Xavier Eric Manalastas, president, CEO of Next BPO Solutions, a homegrown BPO firm and president of BPO ADI said.
The city’s position as an ICT destination surpassing other cities of the member countries in the Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia Philippines East Asian Growth Area thus attracting more BPO locators is greatly attributed to the city’s good business climate, typhoon-safe area, peace and order situation, cooperation of the local industry partners, and the availability of pool of talent that only need to be further developed.
The BPO sector generated some 34,000 jobs for Davao City by the end of 2015.
“With multimillion investments being poured by the BPO industry to the city through the construction and expansion of more BPO spaces, it opens the creation of more jobs in the service sector,” Davao City Investment Promotions Center (DCIPC) officer-in-charge Ivan C. Cortez earlier said.
The BPO sector, it was noted, that it started the year 2015 with 20,000 jobs and ended the year with some 70 percent growth to 34,000 jobs.
Cortez said that big part of the generated job is contributed by the voice call centers.
In 2014, the BPO sector registered $18.9 billion in total revenue and is forecasted to grow between 30 to 32 percent from 2015 onward.