With an 8,000-seat call center, the Embarcadero IT Park in Legazpi City, Albay is expected to generate 24,000 jobs for its 24/7 operations.
To be managed by HSAI Raintree, which also runs the Discovery Suites Ortigas, Discovery Shores Boracay and Discovery Tagaytay, the Embarcadero de Legazpi is targeted as the smaller version of the Mall of Asia in Pasay City, inspired by the Fishermen’s Wharf in San Francisco, California and master planned by world-renowned BN Group Pty. Ltd. of Australia.
With a few months left prior to its launching in August, Embarcadero is conducting extensive outsourcing of BPOs both for the IT park and the commercial center.
Cheaper power due to its direct connections to Napocor and TransCo is enough to ascertain the sustainability of Embarcadero as a perfect place to do business — with about 30 percent cheaper power than that of the local electric cooperative — with a backup generator set and a wind turbine that is now undergoing extensive study.
Embarcadero’s sustainability is supported by tax holidays that it would be enjoying as a tourism economic zone with an IT component, as certified by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.
Many fiscal and non-fiscal incentives would benefit the locators of both the IT park and commercial center.
The Embarcadero IT Park realizes the long-time dream of every Bicolano for a better life. It is expected that the 24,000 jobs to be generated by the IT park alone would be more than enough to change the macro and micro economic picture of the province of Albay and the Bicol region in general.
The P1.8-billion investment for Embarcadero’s Phase 1 alone will surely be a catalyst for the much-awaited economic boom.
A hotel is also being planned at the Embarcadero complex to house expatriates and visitors to resorts and other tourist spots in the Bicol region, in addition to the existing Hotel Venezia and the new Hotel St. Ellis (formerly La Trinidad Hotel).
The Embarcadero project is highly supported by local government units, especially Legazpi City Mayor Noel Rosal who has been enthusiastic in promoting the Embarcadero.
Rosal lobbied for the Embarcadero IT Park, as Legazpi is one of the eight cities in the country that are actively promoting information and communications technology investments.
Legazpi City was awarded as the most business-friendly city in Southern Luzon in 2007 by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
In his eagerness to support the project, Rosal launched a flagship program which offers scholarship for prospective call center agents for the Embarcadero.
An initial batch of 130 students is undergoing 356-hour training as call center agents to cope with the manpower requirements of the IT park.
“We are 101 percent supportive of this world-class investment in our city. We are eagerly anticipating the actual operations of the Embarcadero, most especially the IT park. We are preparing for its full operation by means of scholarship training programs for call center agents,” Rosal said.
“Embarcadero will create a stir on Bicol’s economy and would literally facelift Legazpi’s image as the new economic tourism haven in the Philippines,” he added.
This is apart from the scholarship training being granted by Albay second district Rep. Al Francis Bichara who is offering 200-hour intensive training and from the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority (TESDA) near-hired scholarship program that is backed by Sen. Ed Angara.
The multibillion-peso investment will be infused by a full-blooded Bicolano, Elizaldy Co, chairman of the Sunwest Group of Companies, who shares every Bicolano’s dream of a progressive Bicol.