Private sector takes lead to promote RP as BPO hub

Big businesses and business groups have agreed to work toward creating a council to promote the Philippines as a hub for e-services, particularly business process outsourcing (BPO), a rapidly growing industry which Gartner/Dataquest expects to hit $543 billion by 2004.

At a recent meeting organized by Digital Philippines and the Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (ITECC), Roberto Romulo, the council’s co-chairman and Digital Philippines chairman, said it is important for the Philippines to come up with an organization similar to India’s National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) in order to increase the Philippines’ share in the burgeoning e-services industry.

This private sector-led organization will serve as the key arm and single point reference for the Philippines’ IT industry – mobilizing players in order to have a sustained and aggressive marketing effort for brand-building activities, wresting concessions and brokering deals for the industry, as well as providing market intelligence.

To accelerate the creation of the council, Romulo suggested that the umbrella organization bring together all business and IT organizations as well as government agencies.

"This council should be able to transcend all partisan considerations because the results are mutually beneficial," he said. "Besides, the Philippines is ideally suited for BPO."

He tapped Ramon Dimacali, chairman of Software Ventures International Corp., to head the committee to look into the development of the council.

Tapped to help Dimacali in the task include Guillermo Luz of the Makati Business Club; Marife Zamora, president of the Philippine Software Association and managing director of Headstrong Philippines Inc.; Ray Espinosa, managing director of e-PLDT; Cynthia Mamon, representing the IT Association of the Philippines and president and managing director of Sun Microsystems Philippines; Mark Javier, president of Ayala Port; Henry Schumacher, executive vice president of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP); Guillermo Luchangco of the RP-US Business Council; and Emma Teodoro, president of SoftTech Advantage Inc.

"There is a large potential market for BPO and other e-services in Europe for the Philippines to exploit. But there is a need to solicit the support of multinational companies based in the Philippines and to convince them that the country is capable of meeting their needs," said Schumacher in his presentation.

The ECCP has taken the lead in matching the IT needs of European clients with the IT capabilities of Filipino companies through the European IT Service Center (EITSC), an initiative of the ECCP, German Development Cooperation (GTZ) and the Asia-Europe Foundation of the Philippines.

The EITSC will focus on three areas: set up a network of IT service providers in the Philippines to meet European IT outsourcing needs, train IT staff and management, and help small and medium European IT enterprises to start operations in the Philippines.

Also present during the recent ITECC meeting were Undersecretary for Communications Virgilio Peña; Ricardo Romulo of the Makati Business Club; Manuel Pangilinan, president and CEO of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.; Gil Guanio, CEO of Software Ventures International Corp.; Joaquin Quintos IV, general manager of IBM Phils.; JB Sebastian, VP for corporate planning of JG Summit Holdings; Jesus Pineda Jr., chairman of Philippines Inc.; and Renato Valencia, former administrator of the Social Security System.