The provincial government of Bohol held the ICT Sector Planning workshop on December 17, 2015 at the Casa Rey Francis Inn and Restaurant. The whole day even was attended by the various stakeholders of the Information and Communications Technology sector. This sector includes the Bohol Investment Promotion Center (BIPC), the academe (HNU, UB, STI, BISU), DOST-ICTO, Bohol ICT Council, the Tagbilaran City government, BEPO, DTI, EDCOM, Bohol ICT Unit, TESDA-Bohol, DepEd-Bohol, Philippine National Police (PNP-Bohol), Bohol Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), Google Educators Group (GEG), PGBH-SEEM, freelancers, TaRSIER117, Techtalks Tagbilaran, Globe Telecom, Philippine Call Center Institute, DTI and other groups interested in the ICT industry.
City Mayor Baba Yap, in his inspirational message, said that there are interested parties that are willing to locate their BPO operations in Tagbilaran City and the city government is committed to make the city attractive to investors in this industry. Currently, the Sangguniang Panglungsod is developing the incentives code for this industry.
Ms. Lai Biliran, the chairperson of the Bohol ICT Council presented the massigve opportunities for job generation in the ICT sector. Even nurses and other graduates of medical courses can find employment in the BPO industry with the increasing trend of outsourcing the medical records processing to the Philippines. In an online survey conducted by the ICT council a few years ago, Boholanos working in the BPO industry in other cities are willing to relocate back to Bohol if similar job opportunities are available.
Ms. Marjoe Narca of HNU facilitated the planning workshop.
The ICT industry is currently an US$18B industry in the country and the revenue generated is expected to exceed OFW remittances in the near future. Bohol’s share of this market is very small and is contributed by small enterprises operating locally and some foreigners who opened offices here. Although a small industry in Bohol, BPO operators are already doing inbound and outbound call center operations, software development, drafting, engineering and architectural designs, content development, graphics, animation and photography.
The perennial challenge to the small ICT enterprises is the high cost and low bandwidth of business grade Internet connections. While guaranteed bandwidth leased line connections are already available, these are very expensive and would not be economically viable to use by small enterprises.
Participants to the ICT Sector Planning Workshop.
