Asia’s leading outsourcing players are exploring a shift from individual country promotion and development towards collaboration and integration to help expand the region’s share of the global ICT market, according to Cebu Business Month-ICT chairman Bonifacio Belen.
“Collaboration will enable and empower individual Asian countries to more effectively deliver services, sell products, develop technologies, and thus respond more efficiently to the ever-growing global outsourcing demand,” said Belen, who is also executive director of the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (CEDF-IT).
As part of the effort to transform Asia into a premier global ICT investment destination, regional IT stakeholders will gather next month for the Cebu ICT 2007 International Conference and Exhibition. The Cebu business community and other stakeholders hope to use the conference to position the province as a leading innovation and technology hub, and foster regional cooperation for the benefit of Asian economies in general.
“Cebu ICT 2007 will hopefully contribute to harnessing Asian potential through groundbreaking collaboration in the vital frontier of innovation ecosystem advancement, investment promotion, and human capital development,” Belen explained. The event is scheduled June 26 to 28 at the Cebu International Convention Center and Shangri-La’s Mactan Island Resort Hotel.
Initiatives to promote collaboration include an Asian circuit of ICT events to enhance knowledge sharing and networking among investors and industry professionals, as well as developing shared performance and certification standards. Belen said he expects progress in securing international recognition for the Philippine IT general certification exam (PHIL-IT GCE). Originally developed to certify Filipino IT knowledge workers, the exam can be applied regionally as well.
“The business opportunity is definitely in outsourcing and its support industries, and Asian countries are realizing the need to capitalize on each other’s strengths. We look forward to transforming Asia into a top ICT arena in the next few years through greater collaboration,” Belen added.
