DICT cites strong potential of Western Visayas in digital ecosystem

ILOILO CITY: The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on Wednesday spotlighted the potential of Western Visayas region in promoting the digital ecosystems during the Regional ICT Summit and Exhibitions (RISE) program as part of the four-day Western Visayas Innovative Startup Festival in this city.

“We are ready, we have been ready. But we need to continue to be ready to evolve. The demands of the industry have become complicated,” said DICT Undersecretary for ICT Industry Development Jocelle Batapa Sigue in a press conference at the sidelines of the summit.

She said that the Information Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) industry has provided approximately 100,000 jobs in Western Visayas, providing around PHP1 billion a month in salaries alone.

Sigue said Western Visayas has two Centers of Excellence – the cities of Bacolod and Iloilo and one digital city, Roxas City.

It has ready talents given the good universities, the business environment is ready, it has the
available infrastructure and a better road system, and food and utilities are cheaper and of good quality.

‘Our challenge for Region 6 is let us lead the way for the country because we have a lot of potential,’ she said.

Haidee Enriquez, talent attraction and development committee chair of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), said that currently, the industry has 1.7 million direct employees.

‘We are anticipating and projecting that by 2028, so four more years, there will be 1.1 million additional jobs added to the industry. Out of that 1.1 million additional jobs, we are projecting that as much as 55 percent will be delivered by the countryside, roughly 600,000 jobs. How much of that do you want to be in Western Visayas,’ she said.

She urged stakeholders to visit the Philippine Skills Framework for the ICT Framework to guide them in accelerating the growth of digital jobs in the region.

Velma Jane Lao, head of the Iloilo City Local Economic Development and Investment Promo
tion (LEDIP) office, said they are seeing the phenomenal growth of the industry.

She said there is a need to go back to what they were doing before, like intervening not just in college institutions but even high schools to train their students in communication and even higher skills.

‘I think the schools are catching up, but we need to double our efforts in making this partnership again with schools and making the graduates relevant to the industry,’ she said.

Lao said she would like to believe that the BPO and the IT sector are among the biggest contributors to Iloilo City’s economy.

Source: Philippines News Agency