Cebu City Recognizes 10 Big ICT-BPM Firms

The Cebu City government has recognized 10 companies engaged in information and communications technology and business process management (ICT-BPM) for their investment and big contribution to job generation in Cebu.

The awarded companies are Accenture, Convergys, ePerformax, Lexmark, Qualfon, Sykes, Teleperformance, Telstra, Wipro and Xerox.

Cebu City Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella noted that the IT-BPM industry has already employed over a hundred thousand workers in Cebu, quoting the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP).

“Aside from the revenues it generates for the City of Cebu, we have also generated employment opportunities to many of our constituents,” Labella said.

Edu Rama, head of the Cebu City ICT-BPM Council (CCIBC), said the firms were chosen based on the number of jobs they created.

He said the 10 companies account for more than 60 percent of the industry’s total employment generation in the city.

Convergys, for instance, has already employed about 13,000 workers in Cebu, according to Wilfredo Sa-a Jr., executive director of Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (Cedfit).

Rama also said the contribution of the industry to the city’s tax revenue is considerably “high.”

Rama said the recognition would be done annually and that he wanted also to award those companies having big share in taxes to the city.

In 2000, Rama said the industry generated only about 1,200 workers.

But jobs have grown to over a hundred thousand now mainly because of the rise in IT-BPM firms locating in Cebu, he said.

Sa-a said some 200 IT-BPM companies are now operating in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.

Over a hundred of them are in Cebu City. (PNA) FPV/EB/EDS