RP poised to become IT destination in the world
IT News - Outsource IT to the Philippines
DUMAGUETE CITY, Jan. 21 (PIA) -- Plans are now in place to position the Philippines as the information technology (IT) destination not only in Asia but in the world.
Randy Bandiola, president of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) council here, said his group is part of a nationwide effort to formulate the Philippine Digital Strategy (PDS) which will put the country on the map when it comes to premier IT services.
PDS is a new national ICT roadmap that will serve as the masterplan for the industry's development between this year until 2016 under the auspices of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) created under the Aquino administration.
The Philippines, in a study commissioned by IBM in the later part of 2010, has overtaken India in terms of voice business process outsourcing services. “We are now ranked number one in voice BPO,” said Bandiola.
He said that if the country positions itself to become the preferred talent for IT outsourcing and offshoring services, then jobs will come to the Philippines. “This will stop the brain drain syndrome in our country and mitigate the exodus of our workers to other countries,” said Bandiola during the Kapihan forum held Jan. 19 by the Philippine Information Agency here.
The local IT industry has been pouring billions of dollars into the country's economy, earning the monicker “Sunshine Industry” due to its fast expansion and the thousands of jobs it has generated.
In 2006, BPO companies contributed to the local economy around USD$3.2 billion and it has steadily grown to around USD$9 billion last year.
The market for offshoring and offsourcing was pegged at USD$74 million in 2006 and economic forecasts put the industry's market to be around USD$256 to USD$268 billion by 2016. “We would like to get a share of that market here in our country as we can see that the IT industry will continue to grow in the coming years,” said Bandiola.
Forecasts for the industry's job opportunities are looking rosy for the following years as well. Bandiola said that by 2016, “we are looking at generating 1.3 million jobs directly by the ICT industry.”
He also cited the multiplier effects of IT employment in other industries catering to the ICT industry. “When a worker from a BPO industry receives his salary, he spends it on food, clothing, entertainment and other necessities, creating jobs in those fields as well,” Bandiola said.
Dana Fortunato of StudentUniverse and a member of the ICT council here, said that the nearly 4,000 jobs generated in the BPO industry in the province in December 2010 would have generated 10,000 jobs in other industries.
These news were brought from PIA.
