General Santos gets its first IT park

BY ROMER S. SARMIENTO, BusinessWorld Correspondent GENERAL SANTOS CITY — The Philippine Economic Zone Authority, or PEZA, has approved one of two applications for the establishment of an information technology (IT) park in this city, an official confirmed on Thursday. Ellorence Cruz, Board of Investments coordinator here, said that Mabuhay Technopark Corp. was recently registered by the authority to develop the Mabuhay IT Park in the heart of the city. "As the first IT park in the city, Mabuhay is set to take a leap that will mark GenSan’s entry into the ICT [information and communications technolo-gy] sector," she said. "Mabuhay is a private-led initiative, envisioned to be the shining land-mark for the ICT business in city." Start of the year Ms. Cruz said the project is expected to be launched next month in an area measuring about three hectares. Operating in a 24/7 fully-secured community, the zone will serve as a one-stop facility capable of carrying voice, video and data services that would deliver reliable, secured network communications and back-up power supply, Ms. Cruz said. Complementing this will be the establishment of an incubation center consisting of nine "intelligent offices" — four small-sized ones averaging 24 square meters each, three medi-um-sized ones measuring 35 sq.m. each, and two large-sized ones of about 60 sq.m.-75 sq.m. each — as well as support facili-ties such as three conference facilities/training rooms, a mini-exhibition hall, and a cafeteria, Ms. Cruz said. Ms. Cruz said that pending approval from the PEZA is the application of Mindanao Polytechnic College to also establish a separate IT park in this city, dubbed the "Tuna Capital of the Philippines." She noted that with the appro-val of Mabuhay, locators in its park would get four to six years corporate income tax holidays. Also, imported equipment that would be brought in to the park would be duty-free, she added. Positioning This city has been positioning itself as an alternative ICT hub outside Metro Manila. Dorecita Delima, Department of Trade and Industry-Central Mindanao deputy director, earlier said that IT parks will be getting assistance from the local government and the local Trade department office. She added the IT parks will attract investors in the business process outsourcing industry such as call centers, medical transcription, animation, architectural and engineering design, among others. The local Trade department office and the city government have been conducting "E-business" week celebrations in the past few years in a bid to drum up the ICT potentials of the locality. Mayor Pedro Acharon, Jr. said the locality’s advantages in luring businesses consist of its "quality human resources, the low cost of doing business and the presence of needed support systems such as telecommun-ication, accommodation and infrastructure facilities." "The city also offers incentives for all ICT investors. There are already transcription companies and independent software vendors that are operating in the city," Mr. Acharon said. Strengths Ms. Delima said the indus-try here is banking on the grow-ing global demand for human capital and reliable infrastructure, which the city "is capable of providing." "While the Philippines is taking advantage of its world-class position in the business process outsourcing sector, it is also being challenged by issues, specifically in sustaining the human resources required by the industry," she said. Citing a study by Plunkett Research, Ltd., Ms. Delima noted that outsourcing was a $400-billion global industry in 2006. According to that study, the biggest segments of outsourcing in that year were logistics, sour-cing and distribution services, followed by information tech-nology services, particularly the production of software and the management of computer centers.