Local IT firms eye tieup with US counterparts

Filipino information technology companies are interested in entering into  partnership with companies in Florida to get a foothold in the IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) market in the United States, according to the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), the export promotion arm of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

Florida is a highly diverse state in the US composed of eight regions. 

For instance, about 600-plus technology businesses thrive in Southwest Florida.

The technology business depends on Florida’s skilled workforce, advanced infrastructure and low business costs. 

Florida Gulf Coast University and the emerging Florida Gulf Coast Technology and Research Park are drawing new businesses to the area and providing existing businesses with the resources they need to innovate and grow.

Florida’s southwest region, including West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, rank particularly high in the United States when it comes to high-tech capacity.

"The Philippine business mission aims to introduce our own IT/BPO companies to the available market opportunities in Florida  that they can find a niche," according to Trade Assistant Secretary Fe Agoncillo-Reyes, executive director of CITEM.

Florida’s  IT industry, including IT products, information services, software development, telecommunications, Agoncillo-Reyes said, has grown in the last decade. 

With its multiple hubs for data transmission and emerging status  as "Internet gateway" to Latin America, Florida presents many opportunities for Filipino IT companies," Agoncillo-Reyes said.

From the birth of Florida’s space program in the 1950s in Cape Canaveral to laser technology in the 1960s in Central Florida, to the IBM personal computer in Boca Raton in the 1980s, Florida has played a strong historical role in pushing the technology envelope.

Florida, furthermore, Agoncillo-Reyes said, is a main investment gateway to country members of CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement). 

About 300 multinational firms have their Latin American and Caribbean regional headquarters in Florida. 

In all, some 2,000 companies based outside the United States operate in Florida. 

The US state has one of the largest concentrations of international banks in the United States.