LGUs urged to promote the IT industry in Japan

A city like Cebu, which has a huge potential to attract Information Technology (IT) investors, should take its own initiative in promoting especially the software industry to Japan and in other countries, as the Philippine government seems to be "passive" in its effort for promotion.

"If national marketing activity led by national government or the entire IT sector is difficult, an active appeal by local governments to the Japanese market may be effective," said Atsuo Mizayaki, a Japanese IT expert said in his assessment to the Philippine IT sector.

Mizayaki observed that the Philippine government has been taking a passive stance in pushing and promoting the country's IT activities toward the Japanese market compared to other countries, like China and India.

He specifically mentioned Cebu City can do an aggressive promotion for its IT capabilities especially in software development as in partnership with local government units (LGUs), rather than relying on the national government led promotional activities.

"Cebu City which is very aggressive in IT industry promotion, can bring in together the small and medium scale IT companies within the city, or collaborate with other local governments or business conglomerates, and create a software industry promotion strategy," he suggested.

Mizayaki, visited 10 IT companies last year, including Cebu-based software companies like PowerPro Software Solutions, SPI Technologies Inc., and Primary Software Development Corporation.

Mizayaki, a director for training at the Center of the International Cooperation for Computerization, and chief researcher of Japan PKI Forum, said the technical skill level in the Philippines in general, especially for the software developers is high in the Philippines than that in China.

"While China achieved thousands of software companies in a very short period, the reality is that the quality of its engineers has deteriorated inversely proportional to the growth of the size of its IT industry," the Japanese IT expert further commented.

"It is possible that Japanese software houses, having failed in their offshore outsourcing to China, will take a fresh look at the Philippines as alternative destination for offshore software development," he added.

Cebu Software Development Industry Association, Inc. (CebuSoft) executive director Virgilio Y. Paralisan said that the focus of the industry right now is to strengthen its membership, and set up a standardization platform for international quality in order for the member companies to be globally competitive.

Creating an effective promotional strategy as an industry will be implemented later, after companies will have the confidence to serve the global market, as well as compete with the world.