Friday, March 28, 2008 [ philstar.com ]
Companies based at the Eastwood City Cyberpark are expected to generate combined export revenues of at least $1 billion by 2010, according to Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, Jr.
Based on data from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), Eastwood City’s business process outsourcing (BPO) firms registered $188.575 million in export earnings in 2006 or 60 percent higher than the previous year’s $117.6 million. Figures for 2007 have yet to be finalized although indicators point to another exceptional performance as the number of locators continues to grow.
“The revenue achievements become more meaningful, considering that the Eastwood City Cyberpark was established only 10 years ago, and had flourished considerably with the broad support provided by the Quezon City government to promote it as a premier business hub,” Belmonte said.
As the country’s first IT park, Eastwood City Cyberpark now hosts more than 60 firms, comprising multinationals such as Siemens, Dell, IBM, Citibank and eTelecare.
“In recent years, Quezon City has gained a reputation as a preferred location for information and communications technology (ICT) companies in the Philippines because of the plus factors of a large, educated human resource pool combined with the wide, available, reasonably priced locations for business,” Belmonte added.
The city is popularly referred to as the country’s ICT capital and has been ranked seventh among the Top 10 Asian Cities of the Future in a survey commissioned by The Financial Times of London, he added.
PEZA had forecast that the BPO sector, as a whole, will generate $12 billion in revenues by 2010.
Eastwood City is a 16-hectare state-of-the-art residential, business commercial and entertainment city development of upscale property developer Megaworld Corp.
To take advantage of the continued strong demand for office and residential space, Megaworld is constructing a new building, Global One Center, specifically targeting BPO operators and for residential purposes.
The 27-storey Global One Center will rise at Eastwood City’s new Palm District and have 42,000 square meters of prime office space upon completion in 2009. It is expected to boost Megaworld’s recurring lease income once it becomes fully operational.
Eastwood City marked the emergence of the Philippines’ BPO sector in 1999 and is now home to the country’s largest BPO community.
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