‘Cebu City Preferred by IT Companies’

More information technology (IT) companies prefer to take root in Cebu City over Metro Manila due to the growing rapidly of IT here, said Wilfredo Saa Jr, Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (CEDF-IT) managing director.

Saa said that Cebu grew from having around 1,200 people back in 2001 to around 140,000 direct employees in the IT industry as of December 2016.

IT industry also grew in its types of services, from contact centers to having more complex operations like IT outsourcing activities, health management, engineering services, and research and development.

In light of this exponential growth, CEDF-IT will hold the 2017 Transformation Summit on May 22 at the Marco Polo Plaza Hotel which aims to lead the Cebu IT industry towards sustainable growth and higher value services.

“Cebu City is competing with more than 60 other cities aside from Metro Manila in attracting IT companies. We should be able to prepare our talents and prove that we don’t only have the quality but the quantity of talents to support this direction of the industry,” he added.

The event will be a venue for participants to know about the updates on the Philippine IT-BPM Roadmap 2022, the direction and programs of the Cebu City Government for the industry, the importance of investing in opportunity and talents, growing and hitting headcount targets for Cebu, industry views on artificial intelligence, cybercrime, how to manage change, and upcoming infrastructure including the new Mactan International Airport Terminal.

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is highly supportive of the growing IT industry in Cebu, said Saa.

The official met with industry people to ask them for their needs and challenges and in what way the city can help sustain the growth which is beginning to produce results such as the bus service for night shift employees and plans to open a one-stop shop where new employees can process their documents like NBI Clearance, SSS, PhilHealth and PAG-IBIG.

In relation to the rapid change occurring in the industry, Cebu Delivery Center Lead for Technology, Accenture, Arvin Yason, said there is a need  to upscale not just the employees but even the market at large and the academe.

CEDF-IT is the first ICT Council of the Philippines established in March 2001 to enhance the quality and quantity of human resources in the IT industry in Cebu.

Because of its success in Cebu, around 70 ICT Councils modeled after CEDF-IT exist today in key cities and provinces in the Philippines. (asv/PIA-7 Cebu)