Phl can become global hub for data analytics

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines has the potential to become the global hub for data analytics, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

“Data analytics is where you put a lot of intelligence in mining data... if properly analyzed, (it) would be put to a lot of productive use like helping companies make good decisions out of the data. There is a very good chance we will give it a big shot to make Philippines become (the) data analytics hub of the world,” Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said in the DTI’s bi-monthly publication Dataline.

At present, he said the private sector and the government are working together to prepare Filipino graduates for data analytics citing the introduction of school curricula by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and IBM.

“There are ongoing efforts where we are seeing some semblance of it and some companies are doing it already in the country,” he said.

Studies have shown there is a growing requirement for data analytics in other countries.

The increasing demand for data analytics however, requires employees with higher level skills.

“That requires more than accountants but interdisciplinary fields of engineering and accounting. The Philippines is well positioned to meet those requirements,” Domingo said.

To take advantage of data analytics which is the next phase in the information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) industry, he said the government, private companies and academe will have to collaborate further in education to provide the graduates with the necessary skills.

“We have a higher caliber-type of human resources that is highly untapped,” he added.

The Philippines has been recognized as the global leader in terms of voice IT-BPM services.

In terms of non-voice services which include data analytics, the Philippines is the second most preferred location in the world next to India.

Under the IT-BPM road map, the industry is aiming to generate a total of $25 billion worth of revenues both from the voice and non-voice segments and have 1.3 million employees by 2016.

Last year, the industry generated revenues amounting to $13.2 billion and employed nearly 800,000.