Tech firm bats for passage of ICT department to boost BPO sector

MANILA, Philippines—An official of the multinational tech firm EMC is pushing for the passage of the bill creating a department that will promote information and communications technology (ICT) to help attract much-needed investments and help drive economic development.

With the Philippines having a technology-driven business process outsourcing (BPO) industry,  ICT would lead to more jobs and higher incomes for millions of households, Ronnie Latinazo, EMC country general manager, said.

“Once the ICT bill is passed, the industry will get appropriate focus for ICT development in the country,” said Latinazo.

He was referring to the two separate measures in Congress, both seeking the creation of a separate department for government ICT concerns and policies. The Senate and the House of Representatives have approved on the third and final reading their respective versions of the bill.

EMC’s local office is currently a member of the Information Technology Association of the Philippines (ITAP), which represents the country’s biggest technology firms.

“Our position has always been that any economy that strives to achieve higher growth rates have to focus on IT. We think IT in general is a key growth driver in any economy,” Latinazo said.

He said prioritizing ICT would also be necessary to sustain the current growth of the BPO sector, which has become the second-biggest source of foreign exchange, next to overseas Filipino worker (OFW) remittances.

“If proper investments are in place, the BPO sector will become the largest source of foreign exchange in the Philippines,” Latinazo said.

The Business Processing Association of the Philippines in its recent yearend report said the outsourcing sector contributed over $11 billion to the Philippine economy. The country’s over 800 BPO firms also employ over 630,000 employees.

He said the creation of an ICT department would also be vital, given the amount of IT investments seen going to the Asia-Pacific region in the next 12 months.

Last year, IT spending in the region grew by 10.9 percent, faster than the global average of 7 percent. In 2012, the growth is expected to average at 7.3 percent for the Asia-Pacific region, faster than the projected 3 to 5 percent expansion global.

For EMC, which specializes in IT storage solutions, Latinazo said the creation of a Department of ICT would lead to more business for the company.

“One of the priorities of the company is broadband Internet development. If you increase the pipes, you increase the amount of information online and the more storage people will need,” he said.