DAVAO CITY, Philippines -- Four business process outsourcing (BPO) companies have trained their sights on this city for their expansion programs, an official of the city's information and communication technology association said yesterday.

The companies are the Canada-based Infotech Outsourcing Services, Mustang Technologies, Antech Solutions, and GenTech Software, according to Lizabel Holganza, president of ICT Inc.

Other companies from Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and the US have also expressed interest in operating in the city during a gathering in Davao spearheaded by the local ICT last week, said Holganza.

“We have other competitors like Cairo, Egypt, and other Southeast Asian countries that also want to become ICT hubs but we believe we are at an advantage,” she said.

Asked what these companies’ main concerns were, Holganza said: “They want to have an assurance that Davao City is a safe place.”

In a related development, Holganza said plans by ICT to establish a P3-million databank of the industry's manpower resource has been scrapped in view of a recent tie-up with the government, which is expected to achieve the same thing.

Under the tie-up agreement, the ICT sector will be collaborating with the Department of Labor and Employment for the GMA Jobs program, and with the National Economic Development Authority for the Davao Regional Geographic Information Network.

Some adjustments though have to be made on the DOLE system to make it responsive to the needs of the ICT sector, Holganza said. The GMA Jobs program is a system used by DOLE to store data on the manpower needs of local and international companies.

Holganza said the ICT industry continues to grow. This year, the BPO sector plans to hire 2,400 people for the voice and non-voice sub-sectors. “The BPO industry nationwide is expected to grow by 30 percent with a revenue forecast of P8 billion from only P6.3 billion in 2008,” Holganza said.

Ellen Jane Garcia, operations manager of Callbox Sales and Marketing Solutions, said instead of experiencing a slowdown because of the global financial crisis, there was a notable increase in the number of customers.

“The crisis didn't have any effect. In fact, our sales went up,” she said.

Garcia said this could be due to the fact that the local BPO industry was not dependent on countries affected by the financial crisis.

Holganza said the BPO industry could be considered the country's “sunshine industry” that could help prop up the economy in view of shrinking incomes by export companies and lower remittances from overseas Filipino workers.