[ Malaya.com.ph ] December 16, 2009
A decade ago, the business process outsourcing (BPO) did not have a presence in the country.
It took a young businessman, now variously described as an emerging tycoon, to build the country’s first information technology (IT) park, which began taking a slice of the multi-billion dollar global industry.
As the BPO industry grew it began creating thousands of jobs and went as far as fanning out to the provinces.
The first ever IT park is Eastwood City Cyberpark in Libis, Quezon City. The businessman who made this dream come true is Andrew Tan, chairman and chief executive officer of Megaworld, a property development company.
Little is known about Tan having taken the lead in setting up BPOs. He has always been identified with property and compounded brandy, the Emperador brand which is claimed to be top selling.
From the time its first big-name locators Citibank and IBM decided to move to Eastwood City in the late 1990s, Tan knew that his Cyberpark was on the road to becoming big.
Today, Eastwood City Cyberpark ranks as the country’s number one IT park. Data from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza) shows that the 53 BPO locators in Eastwood City Cyberpark raked in about $323.17 million in services export revenues in 2008, higher by 41 percent from the $228.09 million in earnings registered in 2007.
Eastwood City’s BPO locators also tallied the highest total salaries and wages paid last year. The P5.054 billion total is 15 per cent higher than the P4.4 billion paid in 2007.
Tan’s twin goals of earning foreign exchange by exporting services and creating jobs have not faltered.
All told Eastwood City is the work place of more than 30,000 Filipinos, including those from Peza-accredited firms, non-IT company locators and more than 300 restaurants and retail shops.
"More than constructing new buildings, more than developing new landmarks, it is creating new jobs and making an impact in the families of tens of thousands of employees who give me the greatest personal satisfaction," Tan said.
He said he will try to have a bigger impact in the lives of Filipinos in the coming years. Tan said it is his plan to put up two new BPO towers in Eastwood City Cyberpark every year to attract more locators and create thousands of new jobs in the process.
Tan’s second IT park, McKinley Hill Cyberpark in Fort Bonifacio, opened in 2007. As of the first semester, McKinley Hill counted had more than 8,000 employees. This year, six new BPO towers will be finished in McKinley Hill Cyberpark, to provide more space to locators.
His third IT park, Newport City Cyberpark across NAIA Terminal 3, opened its first BPO building early this year. More than a thousand jobs have already been created in the new Star Cruises Centre and even more are being eyed as Newport City Cyberpark grows.
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