DAVAO CITY — The Information Technology (IT) sector here is anticipating 5,000 additional workers to the industry, which already has 45,000 population working in different Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies based in the city.
Davao ICT Council president lawyer Samuel Matunog attributed the projected increase to the growing new locators and expansion of existing BPOs operating in the city.
“The demand is there while many locators are looking at our city either for expansion or new investments,” he said.
Matunog said the IT sector continued to receive inquiries from investors.
“We have the talents and we must prepare because investors also focus on specific fields citing, for instance, engineers are hired in the BPOs to work for an engineering work on-line,” he said.
The other fields that investors look for workers are those with hotel and restaurant management and also on tourism background. He said the trend was that more and more people were fit to work in their respective disciplines in the BPO sector.
According to Matunog, there is an assurance that graduates of a particular course can now work in their field of specialization on-line.
He said that working in the BPO industry was the best step for fresh graduates to prepare themselves to be part of the whole workforce. On the other hand, Matunog said he was also expecting 75,000 workers to be employed in the different BPOs operating in Davao.
“We will continue to work harder in order to reach our target of 70,000 workers for the next 3 years,” he said.
He said the IT sector is optimistic of attaining the target given the fact that the Philippines is No. 1 in voice for call center jobs.
“And we have very good talents here in our region,” he added.
Currently, Matunog said there were over 55 existing locators in Davao.
“We will continue to work harder to attract more investors and support their business requirements as to availability of space and other related concerns,” he said. (PNA)
