Creation of ICT department to benefit Cebu’s economy

CEBU, Philippines – The proposed creation of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will be beneficial for Cebu given ICT as one of its growing sectors, an official from Cebu Chamber said.

Melanie Ng, vice president for business development of Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said creating an agency that will focus on the ICT industry should be a good move by the government.

"The private sector will continue to lobby to make sure the DICT will soon be created," Ng said in a recent press briefing.

"Moving forward there will be a department that will focus on ICT and in Cebu, ICT is one of our growth industries driving our economy," Ng noted.

Earlier, several business groups urged the government to enact a law that will create the DICT.

The Senate and House of Representatives already passed the bill pushing for the DICT creation.

The bill now awaits President Aquino's signature for it to become a law.

That measure is one of the seven priority legislation being pushed by Congress and the business sector but is reportedly not among the identified priorities of Malacañang.

Industry players have said it is only wise to have such an agency, considering that the information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) sector represents more than a million jobs in the Philippines.

Specifically in Cebu, according to Cebu Chamber President Ma. Teresa Chan, citing official sources, about P2 billion from IT-BPO industry goes into the Cebu economy every month.

By 2017, the Cebu City IT-BPO roadmap aims to generate US$2.4 billion in total revenues and around 150,000 employees.

Cebuano economist Fernando Fajardo said in an earlier interview that the challenge for Cebu is to get at least 20% of the national BPO and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) market.

Cebu is now in the Top 10 of the Tholons' list of 100 emerged global outsourcing cities.

Being in the top 10, Fajardo said, means that Cebu now meets the stringent requirements such as IT infrastructure and connectivity, social services, manpower pool, cost of operation, government regulation and commercial risk.

Nationally, the IT-BPO industry accounted for a little over 1 million jobs in 2014 and posted $18.99 billion in revenue last year.

The industry has a target to employ 1.3 million and generate a revenue of $25 billion by 2016. (FREEMAN)