President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday lauded Bacolod City for being one of the top 10 new wave urban destinations for Information and Communications Technology, and congratulated its leaders for the city’s being rated number one in the best business environment criterion.

Arroyo briefly visited Teleperformance in Bacolod City as part of her cyber corridor tour, pointing out that the Philippines BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industry has become a global power house.

She said “Bacolod’s best assets are its people and their progressive mindset that spills over to the BPO employees who come from different parts of the region.”

Bacolod offers a conducive climate for ICT investments, she said noting its having the most number of IT Parks outside Cebu and Metro Manila and its being host to giant investors like TeleTech, Convergy’s and Teleperformance.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said the call center industry is one of the best things that ever happened in Bacolod because of the job opportunities it has created, noting that another group of investors is set to construct a new facility that will create 1,200 more jobs.

Leonardia thanked Arroyo for stimulating the ICT growth in Bacolod City.

Gov. Isidro Zayco thanked the president for including Bacolod City and Negros Occidental in the country’s cyber corridor.

Bacolod today is the host to seven contact center companies that have generated 7,000 jobs, said Bacolod Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, chair of the Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for ICT (BNeFIT) and National ICT Confederation of the Philippines.

This translates to direct investments of more than $15 million and an infusion of P80 million every month in terms of salaries in Bacolod City, Batapa-Sigue said in her briefing to the president.

This is not including the ancillary services that have benefited from the IT-BPO  growth such as hotels, restaurants, department stores, transport, medical institutions because of the increase in the purchasing power of  almost 35,000 Negrenses and Bacoleños who depend on the 7,000 call center workers, she said.

Bacolod City today has the most number of IT Parks outside of Metro Manila and Cebu accredited by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority at 15, with four more coming, Batapa-Sigue said.

These include a 13-hectare property – the biggest IT and Tourism Zone in Bacolod, and a 50-hectare industrial economic zone in Silay City, she added.

David Rizzo, president of Teleperformance Asia-Pacific, said “Bacolod City has helped write the success story of Teleperformance Philippines.”

Teleperfomance Bacolod today currently houses more than 850 work stations and over 1,300 employees, and the firm now has seven centers around the country with 15,000 employees.

With the PBO industry support of President Arroyo, Leonardia and BNeFIT headed by Batapa-Sigue, Rizzo said Teleperformance has set the benchmark for quality service with its clients.

DEV’T AWAY

FROM MANILA

Arroyo said the Cyber Corridor was designed to spread development away from an inequitable concentration in Manila.

The areas identified to be part of the cyber corridor are those with the strongest potential locations for ICT investments, she said, that is why Bacolod City has been included.

She pointed out that, during her administration the Bacolod Silay Airport was built, and an access road is now underway, boosting Bacolod’s potential as an IT hub.

The Philippines and the cyber industry, she said, has come a long way from January 2001.

In 2001 the nation was tethering on the brink of political chaos and financial bankruptcy, the economy was jammed in the reverse, and few investments were being made, she said.

“It was a time of lower salaries and higher prices,” she said.

Today the  500,000 jobs created in the BPO industry are part of the legacy she will leave behind when she steps down this June, after nine years of steering the country to progress, she said.

“From $24 million in 2001, our BPO industry has grown to earn $7.3 billion in 2009, not far behind India's $9 billion,” the President said.

The President said that in developing the BPO sector, her administration invested in strategic digital infrastructure, formulated the appropriate policy, created the legal environment, and developed human capital.

The President said she also encouraged the establishment of broadband services in cities and identified growth areas; created the Commission on ICT, which is guided by the market with minimal government interference; and invested in technical education and skills development by providing schools with computers and Internet connection.

''We invested in technical, vocational, and skills training three times more than that of three previous administrations combined. A very large portion of this investment went to scholarships for call center training,'' she said.

Meanwhile, Ray Anthony Chua, Commission on Information and Communications Technology chairman, said there has not been enough time to get Senate approval for the creation of a Department of ICT that had been approved by the House of Representatives.

“We will have to depend on the next administration to push ICT bills,” he said.*CPG

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