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DAVAO CITY—A
robust information and communications technology (ICT)
sector may turn in earnings that approximate the current
level of remittances of overseas Filipino workers in
only three years, a local executive of the business
chamber here said.
This
bold projection by Andre Fournier, chairman of the ICT
committee of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and
Industry and one of the organizers of the first ICT
Congress of the East Asean Growth Area (Eaga), was
backed by a similar view of the chairman of the
Commission on ICT (CICT), who appealed for support for
the CICT’s elevation to department status.
Outsourcing and offshore operations of big companies
have become a multibillion-dollar industry that awaits
pickup from countries as able as the Philippines, and
earnings from a robust ICT industry “could turn in
earnings equal to the current level of OFW remittances,”
Fournier said.
OFW
remittances have repeatedly breached the $10-billion
mark since 2005, a level that largely propelled the
buildup of gross international reserves reaching $32
billion, and which fueled the steady appreciation of the
Philippine peso. As of August this year the remittances
have already reached $9.3 billion and economic watchers
see the figure reaching $13 billion by year-end, which
would be $1 billion higher than last year.
Secretary Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III of the CICT said
that Fournier’s projection would be “the most obvious
area to discuss for rapid growth.”
“The
industry could bring in more capital to the country, and
if we continue our trajectory, the offshoring and
outsourcing industry would become the number one
competitor of
India,”
Chua told reporters at the Marco Polo Hotel here, where
business people and government were meeting in a
weeklong event for the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the
Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga).
Organizers were to start Wednesday the 15th Senior
Officials Meeting and 12th Ministerial Meeting (SOMM).
“Government has set high targets for the industry in the
next five years,” Chua said. President Arroyo, for
instance, has set a target for the industry to generate
one million jobs by 2010.
But
unless the government can address the concern of the
service providers and the telecommunications companies,
“I doubt that we can even get close to achieving these
goals.”
“We
know that telcos, business companies that they are,
cannot be relied upon to balance the technology gap
among areas, especially in Mindanao, so I see the need
for government to intervene,” he said.
He said
profitability was a major issue to persuade telcos to
put up ICT infrastructure and connect the rural areas, a
concern that he wanted government to address. However,
he said, “we have also to [consider several things] when
we say government intervening.”
He
added: “In a free market, this should not happen, but if
we also let the market have its way, things would not
also happen the way we want the industry to flourish and
contribute a major share in the economy.”
Major
telecommunications companies and other
telecommunications firms recently agreed to sit down
with government representatives, led by officials from
the Department of Transportation and Communications, to
explore how they could contribute to the government plan
to improve the industry.
The ICT
industry has repeatedly demanded for wider but cheaper
communication and Internet connection among the areas,
especially in Mindanao along with Palawan—two places
committed by the government to be its member area in the
BIMP-Eaga.
He said
the talks remained exploratory, and although he was
among the government discussants in these meetings, he
declined to disclose details.
The
government has started to do some intervening, he said,
and cited the case of the broadband deal with the
Chinese telecommunication firm which turned sour. “This
was undertaken on the side of government, to link up all
government agencies and to make transactions transparent
and a lot easier to tract.”
He said
that another option was for government to invest heavily
“on promoting eGovernance”.
“These
transparency and accountability initiatives may not
create immediate impact but in the long haul, these will
encourage investors, even those overseas Filipinos, to
invest here,” he said. |
