Quezon City emerging as new ICT haven

Quezon City is fast emerging as the Information Communication Technology (ICT) capital of the Philippines.

Speaking to members of the Computer Association of the Philippines at the Crown Plaza in Ortigas on Tuesday during the 11th national ICT Professional Congress, Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that the city now has the highest concentration of ICT buildings and special economic zones.

The ICT congress, which was held in connection with the celebration of the national ICT month, was hosted by the city government.

Belmonte said eight ICT parks accredited by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) with about 50 locator firms, operate in various parts of this city. One of these is Eastwood City, the biggest cyber park in the metropolis.

The city is also home to more than 60 business process outsourcing companies like Convergys, eTelecare International, Teletech, Sykes Philippines, Accenture and Globalstride, Sitel Corp., Call Asia, HTMT, Epixtar International, and many others.

Belmonte said companies are discovering that Quezon City is a cost-effective yet strategic office location.

This is true even in the Novaliches area where land values are comparatively lower and where the young residential population provides a vast pool of human resources.

Novaliches district is also the site of the recently inaugurated $5-million Korea-Philippines Information Technology Center, which the President of the Republic of Korea personally opened in December last year.

This facility, which is co-managed by the Quezon City government, is located at the compound of the Polytechnic University in San Bartolome.

IBM Philippines, which has its main office in the Philippines at the Eastwood City Cyber Park, is pouring its Asia-Pacific expansion fund mostly in this country.

"It is not only the major players that are located here. More than 3,000 small and medium-sized enterprises in Quezon City are engaged in ICT-related businesses.

These include close to a thousand Internet cafes and PC retailers and distributors," Belmonte said.

The mayor also announced the development of a state-of-the-art information technology and telecommunication complex in the North and East Triangles .

"I look forward to seeing many of you as locators in this mixed use facility that we, with the help of the World Bank, are working to develop in the North and East Triangles of the city," he said.

"For businesses, this is a good time to locate in Quezon City, and those who live here will be experiencing the benefits of ICT in many aspects of their lives," Belmonte added.