Government should upgrade ICT skills of Pinoys - GMA aide

The government should upgrade the information and communication technology (ICT) skills of Filipinos to attract some $1.6 billion in ICT investments next year, presidential assistant for ICT development Virgilio L. Pena said yesterday.

Pena said government is now focusing on five areas of ICT which include contact call centers, medical transcription, animation services, business processes outsourcing and software development.

"At the moment, there seems to be more emphasis on contact call centers primarily because the demand is currently in that area and there is already an existing organization of such operators who have been able to go on trade missions to promote their capabilities," Pena said.

"Government still expects contact call centers to generate the highest investments amounting to $864 million by 2004 from only $173 million last year," he added.

He also said government realizes the potential for growth in the medical transcription service area which could generate $485 million in two years from only $40 million last year.

Software development is also expected to generate $269 million in investments by 2004 from only $115 million last year while animation is seen to bring in about $40 million from only $20 million last year.

Pena’s observation was shared by Systems Technology Institute (STI) president and chief executive officer Chito Salazar who reiterated the need to upgrade the ICT skills of Filipinos if the country wants to become the ICT hub of Asia.

"Government, academe and business need to collectively work toward a common ICT blueprint, which includes developing the country’s human resources to enable Filipinos to be more globally competitive and more current,"Salazar said.

Pena also acknowledged the need to retrain the current group of ICT graduates to meet the current needs of the market.

He pointed out that only about three percent of the ICT graduates actually qualify to be contact call center agents.