CIB.O pushes for ICT clusters in municipalities

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu IT-BPM Organization (CIB.O) is now reaching out to municipalities in Cebu province for the creation of an ICT Council in each town or identified clusters.

This is to push rural impact outsourcing, which is aimed at developing outsourcing industries in the countryside, said CIB.O president Gregg Gabison.

He said before an outsourcing industry can successfully establish presence in municipalities, an ICT Council should be formed first.

The reason why CIB.O is now starting to reach out to some municipalities like Talisay, Minglanilla and Mandaue is to form even a small group of ICT stakeholders or LGU-led ICT Council so that investment will be more attracted to locate in a particular municipality.

Farther down the countryside, CIB.O is also working closely with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to help Bogo, Dumanjug, and Naga City to form ICT councils as these towns are already starting to build infrastructure to make way for rural impact sourcing program of the government through DICT.

If a town is yet to quantify its ICT players, or still has to set up support infrastructure to host outsourcing investments, Gabison recommended the clustering concept for ICT Council.

Part of CIB.O's contribution, aside from helping municipalities to form their own ICT Councils, is to mentor the players and stakeholders who are involved in the outsourcing or IT/BPO ecosystem like the academe, LGU, and private sector on how to prepare a locality to start off a promising ICT or outsourcing industry.

Earlier, the Cebu provincial government, through the Cebu Provincial Investments and Promotions Office (CPIPO) announced that the office will start its strong campaign to expand the outsourcing sector to the countryside areas.

The initiative is aligned with the Department of Information and Communications Technology’s (DICT) thrust to promote rural impact outsourcing program, dispersing the outsourcing employment opportunities to the municipality level.

According to CPIPO officer-in-charge Floreza D. Alpuerto, DICT has already expressed its support to the initiative as LGUs will start investing on the right infrastructure for this high revenue and job generating sector.

The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) will also be included in the loop of agencies that will be tapped to quickly start off the program.

The Rural Impact Sourcing of the Philippines (RISP) was created to spread outsourcing employment in the countryside.

Using the existing platform of DICT to encourage LGUs in setting up a facility to host the home-based outsourcing workers within their respective municipalities, and the expertise of RISP as manpower training arm, an outsourcing operation can easily start in a community.

The LGU may partner or build a facility for outsourcing investors to come in and earn from it, at the same time providing employment opportunities for its constituents.

This program is aimed at creating additional freelance jobs in the countryside of at least 500,000, in a bid to capture a share of the global BPO, which is expected to grow to a $674-billion industry.

This rural impact sourcing strategy establishes the rural sector as a contender for online/digital-based jobs, expands information technology-business process management hiring pool to remote places, and offers lower cost alternatives for the services industry.

The approved P3.5 billion budget of the DICT, of which deploying public wifi is a priority, is seen to accelerate the rural impact sourcing growth in the province. (FREEMAN)