Posted on 12:07 AM, April 23, 2010 [ BusinessWorld Online ]
DAVAO CITY -- The city’s information and communications technology sector will focus on four concerns, namely: building up a sustainable pool of talent, improving infrastructure, enhancing the business environment, and reducing cost to do business in order to maintain its edge as choice location for business process outsourcing (BPO) firms.
"These are crucial in bringing us to the next level," Lizabel G. Holganza, president of the Information and Communications Technology Association of Davao Inc., said in a recent e-mail.
Davao topped other so-called "next wave" cities cited last Apr. 15 by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology and the Department of Trade and Industry as locations best prepared to accommodate BPO firms that are seeking sites other than already-congested centers like Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.
The other "next wave" cities were listed as: Sta. Rosa in Laguna, Bacolod in Negros Occidental, Iloilo City in Iloilo, Metro Cavite (Bacoor, Imus and Dasmariñas cities), Lipa in Batangas, Cagayan de Oro in Misamis Oriental, Malolos in Bulacan, Baguio in Benguet and Dumaguete in Negros Oriental.
The industry, Ms. Holganza said, will have to provide support beyond basic call center services to include higher-value tasks like medical transcription, software development, and animation.
Ms. Holganza also stressed that the power problem now hounding the entire country -- Mindanao worst of all -- needs to be resolved promptly.
"We need to work on finding long-term solutions to our energy challenge as this will pose a barrier to our growth targets," said Ms. Holganza.
The software development sector in the city has been slowly growing, although there have been problems along the way, said Samuel R. Matunog, president of the Davao Software Association.
Mr. Matunog said that although the association already has 30 members, many software developers in the city -- most of them home-based -- are not yet organized.
In terms of human resources, Andre Joseph T. Fournier, industry consultant of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Davao-based BPOs are now hiring a big number of local applicants.
This situation is different from years ago, when applicants from this city and nearby areas would instead seek such employment in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.
Ms. Holganza said the recent recognition of the city as best location for BPOs outside Metro Manila and Metro Cebu should correct perceptions that the city was in chaos due to conflict in parts of Mindanao. "Investors need to come here to see for themselves that the city is among the most peaceful areas of the country." -- C. Q. Francisco
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