Commissioner Ibrahim addresses 1st Caraga ICT Congress

Commissioner Monchito B. Ibrahim of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) graced the occasion and served as the keynote speaker of the 1^st Caraga ICT Congress held at the Almont InlandConvention Center in Butuan City on February 18, 2009.

 

Commissioner Ibrahim talked about the huge opportunity that the BPO Industry has during this difficult economic times and global recession. The Commissioner served as the plenary speaker for the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) session. He was chosen for his in-depth knowledge and expertise of the topic and his leadership role in the implementation of the government’s program in identifying the next Cyber Cities outside Metro Manila.

It can be noted that the semiconductor industry is slowly ‘tearing apart’ and thousands of jobs have been cut-off this year due to the global economic slowdown but the BPO Industry remains strong despite the recession. The semiconductor industry which used to employ thousands of engineers and factory workers was the number one exporting industry for many years but it is now in grave threat; the BPO industry on the other hand is growing tremendously in the country today.

Commissioner Ibrahim also aided the organizing team in establishing the Caraga ICT Council. Following the plenary sessions in the afternoon, all the professionals from the academe and from the private companies, members of the local government units (LGUs) and some members of the business community gathered for the ICT constitutional mechanism meeting to determine the directions of Caraga’s ICT. The Caraga ICT Council is expected to lead the planning, implementation and review of ICT programs in the region.

Engr. Ramil Sanchez, the chairman of the ICT Industry Council in Caraga, presided the meeting with Commissioner Ibrahim as member of the panel and were joined by Engr. Alan Silor who is the president of Butuan City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Inc., and Ms. Jo Ann Plastina who is the representative of LOGICA, a BPO and an IT company based in Manila.

The ‘skeletal’ organization of the ICT Council was formed, and set a follow-up meeting on March 6 to solidify the council and to put forward the Council’s agenda.

Commissioner Ibrahim confirmed that Butuan City has the potential to become one of the next cities to serve the BPO. According to the Commissioner, Butuan City or Caraga is ready in terms of the technical requirements of the telephone companies or what is commonly termed as infrastructure but there are other relevant components as well that the region has to address such as, primarily, the human capital requirement and support from the city government and LGUs in establishing an Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA) that will provide significant benefits to incoming investors.

“On infrastructure, cost of doing business and business environment criteria, the business sector and government must work together”, Engr. Sanchez noted from his discussion with the Commissioner. “The LGU plays a very important role, particularly in improving the business environment. Caraga Region must look at IT and IT enabled services as a prospect future, because we can not rely so much on being rich in natural resources. We have to mine the brains of the Caraganons, and connect to the global knowledge-based economy. We have to invest to the much required investment in human resource and infrastructure development in order to be more competitive”, Engr. Sanchez said.

The Commissioner was really impressed with the number of participants joining the Congress and with the highlight of the event which was the first computerized Caraga-wide ICT Quiz Show. Some members of the organizing committee overheard him saying it was his first time to attend a Congress with thousand of attendees and a computerized quiz show.

“Small innovations such as what you did with the quiz show should apply for copyright,” the Commissioner stressed. “It is every important that innovations like you were able to demonstrate such as that computer program are properly documented and applied for copyright,” he continued. He finished it by saying that all works from here in Caraga from now on should be properly documented and should be coordinated with government agencies such as the DTI to formalize the copyright.

“We are very honored and pleased to have Commissioner Ibrahim with us. He is a very busy man but we were able to convince him to visit Caraga to join us in this ICT Congress”, Engr. Jeffrey Dellosa, the IECEP’s Vice-Governor for Education said. “We are actually taking the first step of our ambitious dream towards establishing our own ICT Park here in Butuan City or in Caraga and we can only do this if all parties involved are willing to help and collaborate. We hope that we continue to strike while the iron is hot, or even if the iron is no longer hot! That is, even without the Commissioner’s presence.”