Negros investment board to focus on BPOs

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines - What better place for Business Process Outsourcing companies to put up business in than in one that produces thousands of quality graduates every year?

Francisco Martinez, executive director of Negros Oriental Investment Promotion Center, is hopeful for the province to be able to bite a significant share in the BPO industry, banking on the number of quality graduates that the province is able to produce every year.

"We are a university town with more quality college graduates compared to other places," Martinez told The FREEMAN.

"(Our graduates) have minimal intonation," he added, referring to the need of contact center companies for employees with no accent.

DTI provincial director Javier Fortunato agrees with Martinez, pointing out that at present IT companies are the province's "main driver for employment."

Martinez said that at this time manufacturing is not a suitable industry to put up in the province, having no adequate transportation facilities like an international sea and air port.

"It is not practical at this time, unless the raw materials would come from us," he said.

When it comes to tourism, Martinez believes that the province still needs to exert more effort in order for it to compete with the neighboring provinces of Bohol and Cebu.

"We don't have daily flights from Cebu and the fast craft from Cebu still has to pass by Tagbilaran City before coming to Dumaguete," he said, adding that this would increase the travel time in coming to the province.

He said that despite the province's potential of attracting more tourists, most places still needs to identify their tourism assets and develop the facilities that tourists would need like bus stops with clean comfort rooms.

"We must have the capability before we can have the opportunity," he said.

For BPOs, on the other hand, Martinez said that many businessmen in the city are currently developing buildings and facilities that are ICT (information and communication technologies) and PEZA (Philippine Economic Zone Authority)-compliant.

Fortunato recognized the role of PEZA in attracting more investors into the province, referring to them, together with the Board of Investments, as incentive giving bodies.

He said that there is also a need for government to know what they would get from companies in a PEZA zone, while encouraging businessmen in the province to build more PEZA-compliant offices and buildings.

When it comes to the current power crisis in the province, Martinez said that large companies can arrange to either come up with a smaller backup power generating facility or to buy directly from power producers in the island, rather than get their power from the local electric cooperative.

"It's an individual effort for our businessmen, because what can we do if mo brownout ang NORECO (Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative)," he said.

Dumaguete City currently has four major BPO companies, namely: SPI Global, Teletech, e-PLDT Ventus, and Qualfon. (FREEMAN)