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THE
government is buoyant on the future of the local
business-process outsourcing (BPO) industry, predicting
it would generate a million jobs and $13 billion in
annual revenues by 2010.
The rosy
picture was drawn by Ray Anthony Roxas Chua III, chief
of the Commission on Information and Communications
Technology (CICT), Wednesday at the sidelines of the ICT
Professionals Congress.
He said
President Arroyo’s training-workshop program for the
offshoring and outsourcing (O&O) sector is the vital
tool for attaining the agency’s vision of employing
close to 1 million Filipinos.
This
year, he added, the President has allocated P350 million
from the PGMA Training for Work Scholarship Program of
the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority
(Tesda) for the O&O sector. Through this program, Chua
said the CICT hopes to train over 40,000 people to help
them qualify to work in the O&O industry.
“We at
the CICT believe that through this sterling example of
public-private partnership, our lofty objectives are
within our reach,” he said.
Aside
from generating jobs and revenue, the CICT also hopes to
capture 10 percent of the global O&O market by 2010.
Another focus is the continuing development of the
Philippine Cyber Corridor, a virtual channel running
across the country that houses providers of ICT-enabled
services such as call centers, back- office outsourcing,
software development, medical and legal transcription,
animation, game development, e-learning and
e-entertainment.
The
Cyber Corridor has created 320,000 jobs to date and
generated close to $5 billion of export revenues in
2007, said Chua.
“Achieving our growth targets for the industry will be
heavily dependent on our ability to sustain our pool of
talent,” he added.
Secretary Augusto Syjuco of Tesda said his agency is
intensifying efforts to train new call-center agents to
fill the demand. “We have the potential to capture half
of all the call-center requirements of regions in the
world in the next five years, but it all depends on our
ability to keep churning out the supply of knowledge
workers to fulfill this potential.”
Under
Executive Order 269, the CICT is designated the lead
agency in government efforts to make the Philippines an
e-enabled society by making ICT central to
nation-building and national competitiveness.
The CICT
envisions a
Philippines
with affordable and reliable ICT connectivity, a
globally competitive ICT and ICT-enabled services
sector, an ICT-competent work force and an ICT-enhanced
government delivering services with efficiency and
transparency. |
