Strategy summit to help Cebu take-off as IT hub

The 2nd Cebu ICT Strategy Summit will strongly address the four pillars of ICT industry in order for Cebu to take off as an ICT driven economy.

The four-day strategy summit, will start today at the Cebu Provincial Capitol, and will culminate on May 26.

Initiated by Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (Cedfit) and the Cebu Software Development Industry Association Inc., (CebuSoft), the three day Summit Proper will provide an avenue for the government sector to fully understand the (difficult) dynamics of the IT sector.

According to Cedfit executive director Bonifacio D. Belen, there are four critical factors that need to be addressed effectively by both private and government players, in order for the Cebu to attain an international name in the IT hub map.

These identified pillars include; The creation of an Innovative Ecosystem; The promotion of a culture for Technology Entrepreneurship; The provision of a critical mass of quality professionals and practitioners and the availability of legal and financial framework for the IT sector.

Belen said innovation is a major driving force behind economic success. Innovation within an "ecosystem" promotes and enables research and development (R&D) to find its way to the market place.

For Cebu to aim a long-term sustainability in ICT, innovation has to be at the head of the endeavor, with IT Parks taking center-stage in such undertaking.

Also, Cebu has the potential of reaping an abundance of technology entrepreneurs within the next decade, but only if it succeeds in "incubating" start-up companies.

Although, the IT-enabled sector in Cebu is getting stronger in terms of development, he said the "real" IT sector in the province, which involves the development or homegrown talents, and start-up companies is not (yet) being given proper attention.

"Internal development of the talent is what Cebu IT sector needs. There's a demonstrated capacity," Belen said in a press conference held yesterday at Cedfit office in Cebu Asiatown IT Park.

Aspiring to develop technology start-ups necessarily requires that there be a critical mass of competent ICT professionals and practitioners, from engineers, to teachers with postgraduate degrees, to scientists, highly skilled technicians, among others, to sustain the needs of these technology businesses.

Currently, the quantity and quality of such professionals and practitioners available, as well as the stream of graduates from Cebu's educational institutions, have to be increased, through sustaining, and making more effective and wider in scope, the interventions already put in motion in the last five years.

Significantly, technology venture formation calls for unambiguous Intellectual Property Laws, availability of IP lawyers, accountants and assessors for fair financial valuation, and adequate legal framework for venture capital.

For Cebu to give birth, or lend support, to existing innovation-based companies that have no collateral except for their ideas and intellectual property, it is essential that the legal and financial framework be made definite and available.

The Summit is co-organized by Cebu Provincial ICT Council, chaired by Governor Gwen Garcia, Commission of Information and Communications Technology (CICT), and Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI).

Belen hopes that through presenting these underlying pillars of ICT industry, the government will be able to understand its role in helping the sector in a much effective way.

Belen added that in the last few years, the Philippine government was able to effectively market the country as an IT and IT-enabled services investment hub, but it failed to balance it in providing equally aggressive support to the IT sector players in terms of incentives, financial, and other development tools.

He defended though, that the unbalanced support of government to the IT sector may be attributed to the government's lack of understanding in the whole dynamics of the IT sector.