AN executive of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCCII) said they are eyeing to bring in more investments that can offer new opportunities for Dabawenyo fresh graduates skills, especially in information and communications technology (ICT).
“We want to bring in players that can help develop these [fresh graduates] further, because so many of our young graduates are IT (information technology) graduates, and so many of our non-IT graduates are doing IT work,” John Carlo Tria, Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) president, said during the Kapehan sa PIA at the Davao Light and Power Company on April 3, 2023.
As the DCCCII will hold its Davao Investment Conference (Davao ICon 2023) this July 18 to 19 at SMX Convention Center, Tria said they are looking to bring in more investors which can accommodate fresh graduates being trained with digital literacy and ICT skills.
“That’s why we are holding business conferences every two years because we need to bring in new industries that can take in new skills that are being trained [to our fresh graduates],” Tria said.
“I think the challenge is not the volume of graduates, but whether the skills they possess will match what the industry needs,” Tria added.
With this, Tria said they are working with other government agencies and the academe to train and accommodate fresh graduates, whether being left with no jobs or having job mismatches in their current jobs. Tria added most fresh graduates are being hired as virtual assistants or digital marketers from abroad clients.
“Para pag graduate nila, it is easy to match because on the part of business it is also costly to be re-training, mo-hire pa lagi ka’g tao pero kung kinahanglan pa og dugang nga training, costly na siya,” Tria said.
“So we would like to make this sector more robust by bringing investments that can boost this [ICT] potential further,” Tria added.
Tria said they are focusing on the kind of investments that will make the local economy inclusive and resilient, which includes the ICT sector.
Aside from ICT, the Davao Chamber will also prioritize agro-processing for farmers and strengthening Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions (MICE) in Davao City, which can boost tourism in the city.