Cebu ICT Forum Focused on Improve Outsourcing Business
About 500 foreign and local delegates to the information and communications technology (ICT) international conference, which starts Tuesday, will focus on how Asian countries can take advantage of the growing outsourcing market.
Bonifacio Belen, chairman of the Cebu ICT International Conference and Exhibition, said the participants would discuss how “coopetition” could enable Asian countries to increase their share in the outsourcing business.
Belen noted that Asia emerged as an important center for IT-enabled services (ITES).
In India alone, ITES services, such as software, contact center, business process outsourcing, medical and legal transcription, design and engineering, animation and creative, generated $18 billion in 2006.
On the other hand, Belen said the Philippines earned between $2 billion and $3 billion from ICT and ITES in 2006.
He estimated that the Philippines would generate $12 billion earnings in ITES by 2010.
Other Asian countries, including China, Malaysia and Vietnam, have also attracted outsourcing businesses, with the ITES sector growing by 100 percent annually.
However, a handout on the conference noted that Asia’s share in the ITES global market reached only four percent.
