| [ Manila Bulletin Online ] Febuary 8, 2008 DTI Undersecretary Carissa Cruz-Evangelista, who heads the DTI Regional Operations Group said these regional centers of excellence across the country would pave the way to more business and jobs in the countryside. Tier-two cities anxious to leverage the surge in outsourcing investment, will demonstrate their investment-readiness during the 8th e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition. e-Services is organized annually by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) — the DTI agency in charge of export promotion — in cooperation with the Bureau of Investments (BoI) and the Regional Operations Group (ROG) of the DTI. The conference and exhibition take place February 11-12. DTI assistant secretary and CITEM executive director Felicitas Agoncillo-Reyes said CITEM has designed e-Services as a venue for the business process outsourcing (BPO) community to examine industry trends and exchange perspectives. One of these trends is the shift of service providers to offshoring hubs outside the business districts of Metro Manila, and other tier-one cities. "We believe that this geographical expansion is an important development, and presents great opportunity to tier-two BPO hubs," said Reyes. The BPO industry employs more than 300,000 Filipinos and generated approximately US billion in revenues last year, a 34 percent increase over 2006. The industry is expected to grow another 30 percent this year, to US billion. The next-wave cities among the 150 confirmed exhibitors include: Urdaneta and Dagupan Cities, Pangasinan; Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority; Poro Point, San Fernando City, La Union; Berthaphil, Inc.’s developments in Clark Field, Pampanga; Cagayan De Oro City, Misamis Oriental; Bacolod City, Negros Occidental; Legazpi City, Albay; Santa Rosa, Laguna; Iloilo City; Davao City; Cainta City, Rizal; Balanga City, Bataan; Batangas City; and the Province of Leyte. A Next Wave Cities Forum will also be held on February 12. The forum will serve as a venue for the exhibiting Next Wave Cities to present their outsourcing and offshoring investment capabilities, along with their available human resources, competitive cost, strength and quality of infrastructure, and business environment and risk management in their respective localities. "Since its inception in 2000, e-Services has served as the venue for stakeholders in the local outsourcing industry to converge and unite to achieve a common objective—to position the country as a world-class supplier of outsourced services," Agoncillo-Reyes said. "This is an extremely important initiative for the Philippines, and for that reason we’ve consistently enjoyed the support of major corporations in the BPO industry and support sectors, such as telecoms." |
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