ICT-BPM industry ties up with gov’t, eyes 1 million more jobs

The information communications technology-business process management industry needs the help of government to sustain its growth. (INQUIRER FILE)

The information communications technology and business process management (ICT-BPM) industry has partnered with the national government to generate one million more jobs for Filipinos.

Rainerio Borja, former chairman of the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), said this is the goal the industry is currently working on with the incoming administration.

“We have not specified a time frame as of this time, but we will thresh out the details of that in the next month or so,” Borja told Cebu Daily News during the Cebu Digital Transformation Summit 2016 at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City yesterday.

He added that this goal will also be incorporated in the 2016-2022 ICT-BPM roadmap expected to be launched in September this year.

Borja, who is currently the president for Philippine and Australian operations of Expert Global Solutions (EGS), said he would rather not hazard a guess on their goal’s timeline at the moment.

In a presentation during the summit yesterday, he said it took the industry 16 years to generate 1.3 million jobs.

On a positive note, Borja said this development over the years went across the board, with growth visible not only in contact centers but also in the IT, engineering and creative service segments.

He said the industry generated 300,000 jobs outside Metro Manila including 120,000 in Metro Cebu alone.

He estimated that the “ripple effect” indirectly generated 2.5 to four times more jobs as well.

The ICT-BPM industry ended 2014 with export revenues of $19 billion.

Industry leaders projected this to be at $22 billion by end of last year and $25 billion by the end of 2016, already equivalent to current overseas remittances.

By yearend, Borja said they expect the industry to contribute 7.2 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

In the Philippines, the industry has been growing at 15 to 18 percent annually while it only grows at five percent annually on a global scale.

“With these numbers, we are getting market share from everybody else,” said Borja.

Leaders are bullish about the industry this year, expecting it to still grow at about the same rate, Borja added.

In order for this growth to be sustained, Borja said there is a need to partner with the government to ensure a sustainable talent pool.

“We have been working with the past administration to achieve this, and all we want is for what we have done to continue,” he added.

Among the programs he cited that would be beneficial to the industry are technical-vocational scholarships, creation of college curriculums on service management programs, and English skills training for teachers, among others.

“We are not asking for more. We just want what we have right now to be maintained. We don’t want to lose any momentum,” said Borja.

The industry, he added, will also partner with the government to make sure returning overseas workers will not be displaced.

Borja said they plan to put up focus programs where these returning workers can be trained to work in the IT-BPO sector.

They also intend to develop “next wave cities” in the province as BPO hubs.

“If we achieve that, we can generate an additional one million jobs,” said Borja.