Vol. XXI, No. 243-A [ BusinessWorld Online ]
Saturday, July 12, 2008 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
DAVAO CITY — The private sector must take the lead and not wait for the government in laying down the groundwork to stimulate the development of business process outsourcing (BPO) in the city.
Monchito B. Ibrahim, commissioner of Cyber Services Commission on Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), said the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. should spearhead efforts to rally every sector in the city behind an aggressive campaign to go after the BPO firms.
"You must show the government that you are a force to reckon with," Mr. Ibrahim told a gathering of business leaders and government executives during the 8th Davao City Business Conference on Friday.
"The problem is we always want somebody helping us but when we have to do it ourselves, we get lazy," he said.
He said Davao City possesses all the ingredients — human resources, relatively low cost of living, dynamism of business — to become better than most cities in the country if the local government and the private sector could only "walk the talk."
"I am the number one marketing guy [for Davao City] in Manila. when somebody asks me where is the good place to invest, Davao City is always number one on my list. Help me market Davao City," he said.
Andre Fournier, co-chairman of the chamber’s Information and Communications Technology Committee, admitted the lack of concerted effort starting from the private sector, local government units and even schools to come up with a single ICT road map to attract locators to set up shop in the city.
"The businesses in Davao City are too cautious, they should be more like risk-takers. But what risks are you talking about with call centers?" Mr. Fournier asked.
Last month, lawmakers junked a proposal to amend the 1994 Davao City Investment Code to grant more incentives to ICT-related businesses for fear that it could lead to a class suit filed against the city government. The proposed amendment offered as much as six years in tax holiday to investors in ICT.
Presently, there are four call center locators in the city: G-Com, Sutherland, Western Watts, and Global Connect with around 500-600 seats.
Mr. Fournier noted that these call center companies came here on their own, with little help from the city government and the business sector, saying that says a lot about the potentials of Davao City to be at par with the other BPO destinations in the country.
He said the BPO industry in the city has the potential to grow as much as 100% annually if the private sector and government can get their acts together.
For one, Mr. Fournier said the city is sorely lacking in economic zones which investors are always looking at to save on costs. So far, only Damosa in Lanang and the Pryce Towers in Landco, J.P. Laurel Street are the city’s free trade zones.
Now is an especially good time, he said, with the cutback of US firms turning to outsourcing as a way to cut down operation costs amid an economic downturn. — Joel B. Escovilla
_______________________________________________________________________
