Cedfit seeks government support on BPO workers’ housing needs

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu information, communication, technology and outsourcing sector is calling on the government to help provide affordable housing projects for the growing manpower count of the industry.

This is one of the many concerns the sector would want the government to look into, apart from the usual advocacy to improve the quality and quantity of skills to meet the demand of the growing industry, said Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology executive director Jun Sa-a in an interview yesterday.

Although Cedfit was not informed of the meeting of DILG secretary Mar Roxas with call center companies in Cebu yesterday, Sa-a hopes that the government official will also see the importance of housing support for the BPO workers.

Sa-a suggested for the government to consider a partnership with a developer to build an affordable residential building near the IT Park for instance, adding that there are still available properties in the area that are partly owned by the government that can be converted into medium or high rise residential buildings for the BPO workers.

While there are a lot of residential products available in Cebu, a government initiated housing program for BPO workers is deemed important, as workers cannot afford the existing inventories of residential developers in Cebu.

Sa-a also reiterated that Cebu needs to catch up with the growing demand for quality skills in the broad outsourcing sector and that consistent government intervention is needed.

The Information Technology - Business Process Management IT-BPM sector in the Philippines now employs a little over one million people. For Cebu alone, more than 100 thousand are employed in the BPO industry.

While  the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority has an existing scholarship program to support the manpower requirement of the growing outsourcing sector, strong implementation of other related programs is also encouraged, because while the industry is speeding up, the manpower supply can hardly catch up. — Ehda M. Dagooc (FREEMAN)