Bacolod warned IT risks falling behind Iloilo in IT

REPORT FROM BUSINESSWORLD BACOLOD — Commissioner Monchito Ibrahim of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology has warned information technology (IT) stakeholders here that they could be left behind by Iloilo City if it will not embark on the same initiative being undertaken by its neighboring city soon. Mr. Ibrahim, one of the main speakers at the Uniting for Bacolod-Negros Occidental Educational Foundation for ICT Conference and Preparatory Workshop last week, said Iloilo City has already moved ahead with the sale of its old airport property in Mandurriao to property firm Megaworld Corp. which will develop the area into a "city within a city." Reports said at least six outsourcing companies plan to locate at the 54-hectare Megaworld property where a business park will be built at an initial investment of P1.5 billion. "This is the reason why I can see that Iloilo is going to move ahead of Bacolod in the next two years, if you don’t have the same initiative," Mr. Ibrahim said. With the development in Iloilo, he said that outsourcing locators will also hire people from Bacolod and Negros Occidental. "I just wanted you to realize this," he told the workshop participants, consisting of representatives from the academe, local government, government agencies and IT locators. However, Councilor Jocelle Batapa-Sigue said that Iloilo is not exactly a threat to Bacolod because it is "complementary to our strategic plans." Bacolod hosts operations of Focus Communications, Teleperformance, TeleTech, and Convergys. Both Iloilo and Bacolod are considered "next wave cities" under the Western Visayas Hub, according to the offshoring and outsourcing Roadmap 2010 of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines. Their combined current number of full-time call center employees of 4,000 is projected to reach 36,000 by 2010. Among the regional hubs, Western Visayas is second to Central Visayas, which includes Cebu, Mandaue and Dumaguete, with 16,500 such workers and a potential for 47,500 by 2010. Negros Occidental Rep. Jose Carlos Lacson said a provincial road map for Bacolod and Negros Occidental is in the works. — N. L. Guadalquiver and C. G. Samillano/BusinessWorld