5 MORE BPO FIRMS EYE DAVAO CITY

BY JUDY QUIROS

Five business process outsourcing (BPO) companies have expressed interest to locate in Davao City signaling a continued growth in the industry. Eriberto Barriga, vice president for industry development of ICT-Davao said the said BPO establishments are slated to come to the city in the next two weeks to gather more information about the BPO industry climate in the city. Barriga however opted not to divulge the names of the companies except for one, in order not to preempt their investment plans. He named E-Telecare, which has an existing IT recruitment and training center in the city as one of five interested firms. This time, they (referring to E-Telecare) have expressed interest to establish a call center in the city after witnessing the growth of the industry, Barriga said. At present, Davao City has 18 big call centers and over 30 BPO establishments, he said. The above five potential BPO investors are just among a dozen of developers who want to locate in the city, Barriga said. Barriga however said the locators, mostly from Manila are laying some new requirements to ensure that their business venturing in outsourcing will succeed. Most of the locators want to see an ICT site which is already ready for use equipped with the needed infrastructure facilities. Local developers want to upgrade the requirements rather than just focus on space or basic shell. BPO interested developers want other specifications among others, improved and ready to use facilities. “For them, it is practical to come in because the facilities are already ready,” Barriga said. Meeting the said new requirements would entail huge budget, Barriga said. In light of this development, ICT council is seeing the need for more advocacy work in relation to getting assistance from international donor agencies among others, Australia Aid, and CIDA of Canada and for them to understand the needs of the ICT sector to pump prime its development, Barriga said.

~ by davaohive101 on May 14, 2009.