Davao IT industry players to discuss major projects during two-day summit in August

DAVAO CITY, July 4 (PNA) -- Information Technology (IT) entrepreneurs here will discuss major projects during a two-day summit on Aug. 6-7 at the Davao Trade and Convention Center in an aggressive move to position Davao City as a dominant hub in the country.

Lizabel "Wit" Holganza, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Davao Inc. president, said the event dubbed as “ICT Summit 2009,” has the theme “Roadmap 2015: Empowering Davao through Information and Communications Technology”.

Holganza said the event aimed at creating a blueprint on how to realize the industry targets in order to position Davao City as number one in the Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) preferred destinations in the country.

She said although it is quite an ambitious goal, it is attainable with Davao City being ranked fourth in the Top Ten Philippine IT-BPO Destinations out of 37 Philippine cities.

The ranking was made by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) in the 1st BPO Summit in December 2008.

ICT Davao Inc. has tracked 67 ICT and IT-BPO companies in Davao City generating an estimated 6,000 jobs.

Holganza said the estimated number is very conservative because not all ICT and IT-BPO are being tracked in the absence of a Comprehensive ICT Master Plan for Davao City.

She said the number could be more if all IT operations are tracked.

Coming up with a comprehensive ICT master plan or roadmap is the main agenda of the upcoming summit she added.

The IT sector is focusing on four areas to pump prime the industry’s potentials: 1) talent development; 2) cost of doing business; and 3) business environment; and 4) risk management.

Other significant topics such as highlighting the key CICT programs and projects will be discussed during the summit.

Holganza said the city is “very competitive in the ICT-IT-BPO business” but added it cannot relax.

“We have to see the scoreboards and address the problems to meet the goal to dominate the industry,” she said.

Holganza said potential IT investors are coming to the city and interest from other potential investors keeps growing.

She said the ongoing series of video conferencing and tele-conferencing by ICT Davao City Inc. with IT investors particularly in the United Kingdom, Dubai, and Singapore are indicators of a growing interest in the city as an IT-BPO destination.

She said at least four Indian investors have partnered with the city’s IT-BPO operators in the field of medical transcription with an average of 15 seats in Davao City and some other areas of Mindanao.

Holganza said there is still a lot of work to be done in order to generate a larger market share in the industry nationwide.