Microsoft to open R&D facility here

Microsoft Philippines is going to set up a Research and Development (R&D) facility in Cebu in a year's time realizing the good pool of IT talents here.

"There is a great deal of content developers available in Cebu. In think, in one year we could already set up the R&D center in Cebu," said Microsoft Philippines managing director Antonio Javier yesterday, during the opening of the first regional office of Microsoft in Southern Philippines.

The grand opening yesterday, which was graced by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, signals Microsoft's confidence in Cebu to drive growth in knowledge economy-based industries.

According to Javier, in order to pursue the plan of setting up a R&D facility here, the company has to ensure the continuous supply of human resource. To do this, the company has to tie up with schools so that they would offer courses, and curriculum that are geared to provide manpower requirements for this facility.

Although Microsoft's presence had been here for over a decade, the company had only been channeling its presence in Cebu through their partners.

Starting with its Microsoft Cebu facility that will serve as the Southern Philippine headquarters, this company is looking forward to more investments in Cebu.

Javier said there are several content development products that Microsoft will focus for its Cebu R&D center, these are on mobile applications, software products for outsourcing sector, like call centers, and the entire Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.

The Microsoft Southern Philippines office is located on the 7th Floor of the Skyrise I.T. Building in Cebu's Asiatown I.T. Park, a special economic zone.

"Cebu City was chosen to be Microsoft's headquarters in the south due to its competitive climate and vibrant business activities. Cebu is also geared to become the next information technology hub in the country," said Magtanggol Bawal, sales operation director for Microsoft Southern Philippines.

In her speech during the formal opening ceremony held yesterday, Arroyo said the entry of Microsoft's strong presence to Cebu and Southern Philippines is bringing new chapter of the Information Age for Visayas and Mindanao. Bawal said that the Visayas and Mindanao markets are very important to Microsoft 's business, contributing to the phenomenal growth that it achieved in the current year alone.

"This major development is due to our renewed focus on building business in the enterprise and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Javier added that the entry of Microsoft to Cebu, or Southern Philippines through the establishment of an office facility, is not only to strengthen its market hold in the commercial software business, but also to develop infrastructure, providing IT education down to the grassroots, and help the government in terms of promoting Internet safety, and curbing Intellectual Property Rights (IRP) problem.

If Microsoft will pursue its plan to open its R&D center in Cebu, in a year's time, this will make Cebu the home of large IT software research and development companies, such as Lexmark, Nec Telecoms Software, Epson Precision, among others.