President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lauded Davao City for having the largest number of highly-qualified workers for the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, saying the city has “come a long way” in a span of only three years.
Mrs. Arroyo was in Davao City on Wednesday night to visit the Concentrix Call Center at the Damosa IT Park in Lanang, Davao City. Her trip was part of her tour of the country’s Cyber Corridor.
The President said Davao City’s inclusion in the ten “next wave” cities for outsourcing in the country is fitting because it has the largest number of qualified workers in outsourcing in the country.
“Davao City has 500,000 highly qualified workers for ICT, which is the highest pool of highly-qualified workers among all other next wave cities. You cannot find this number in other cities in the country,” Mrs. Arroyo said.
Based on the Davao City Outsourcing Industry Primer, the Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in its Asian Cities of the Future Awards of 2007- 2008 ranked Davao City in the Top 5 Best in Human Resource and Number 1 in Asian Youngest Cities (% Population under 25 years of age).
It further said Davao’s high literacy rate accounts for the nearly 470,000 high-quality workers.
Mrs. Arroyo said Davao City has come a long way in a span of three years as far as ICT is concerned because in sum, 18 call centers were developed employing a total of 7,000 employees.
In such a brief period, the city has developed three PEZA-accredited IT sites, the Damosa IT Park, and the facilities for ICT provided by real estate companies Ayala Land, Robinsons Land Corp., and SM.
Mrs. Arroyo then announced that there are six more applying for ICT development in the city.
She said the development of the Davao International Airport (DIA) is crucial in acquiring uninterrupted growth in the city by placing Davao as one of the cyber corridors in the country.
The Cyber Corridor is one of five development areas/regions mapped out in the 2006 SuperRegion development strategy of the Arroyo administration.
The 10 Next Wave Cities for outsourcing are Metro Laguna , Metro Cavite, Iloilo City, Davao City, Bacolod City, Angeles-Clark-Mabalacat, Baliuag-Marilao-Meycauyan, Cagayan de Oro, Malolos-Calumpit, and Lipa City.
Mrs. Arroyo recalled that in her first SONA she vowed to create wealth by developing labor intensive such as ICT.
She said her aim gained with the significant and continuing growth of the industry.
Updates furnished by the national government showed that BPO industry earnings were projected at $7.3 billion in 2009 up from mere $24 million in 2000 while employment soared up to 446,000 2, 400 in 2000. It is eventually projected to reach 1 million.
Mrs. Arroyo also attributed the industry’s growth to the government support through the facilitation of BPO scholarship programs which posted at P1.6 billion, and other support projects such as the creation of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CITCC)
She said the country’s ICT industry is now challenging that of India, which is tagged as top in the global ICT industry.
“The IT industry is part of the legacy I will leave. Knowledge revolution will lead us to the first world,” she said.
After a very brief interaction with the ICT players, Mrs. Arroyo left at around 8:00 p.m for Manila. |
