PHILIPPINE NEWS SERVICE — THE government’s Cyber Corridor will include 24 of the so-called “next-wave” cities outside Metro Manila that have been identified because of their potential to attract business process outsourcing companies.
“Aside from Metro Manila, which is ranked no. 2 next only to Bangalore in international data corporations’ list of top 20 outsourcing cities in Asia and the Pacific, we have 24 ‘next-wave’ centers that would comprise our Cyber Corridor,” President Arroyo said at the 8th Asean Science and Technology Week held at the World Trade Center in Pasay City yesterday.
The government has identified through the Department of Trade and Industry and the Commission on Information and Technology the cities and provinces that have the most potential to host outsourcing companies.
The 24 “next-wave” centers are: Tuguegarao, Baguio, Dagupan, Urdaneta, Cabanatuan, Clark, San Fernando in Pampanga, Subic, Cainta, Bacoor, Sta. Rosa, Lipa, Batangas City, Camarines Sur, Legazpi, Iloilo, Bacolod, Dumaguete, Cebu, Leyte, Cagayan de Oro, Davao and General Santos.
“Next-wave” cities are those which have the infrastructure to host outsourcing centers as well as a capable labor pool and a proper business environment.
The President said that the government has allotted P3 billion from 2007 to 2010 for research and technology, and that the Department of Science and Technology has received a 51-percent increase in its budget for this year.
“We look for science and technology to do many other things: to put food on the table, to save lives and prevent calamities, to harness renewable and indigenous energy, to cure and prevent illnesses and to create more high quality jobs. And I know that all the Asean has the same aspirations.”
Mrs. Arroyo also announced that by next year, gateway services in the country will no longer be interrupted by natural disasters with the operation of two international broadband links that will “provide resiliency and redundancy needed to protect our cyber services from interruption, such as what happened for a very short time during the Taiwan earthquake.”
In December 2006, a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that hit Taiwan damaged the broadband backbone in the country, causing most Internet shops to close due to disruption of services.
Mrs. Arroyo said the new links of telecommunication giants PLDT in La Union and Globe in Cagayan will ensure that no disruptions will occur in the future.
Mrs. Arroyo also said she is optimistic that losses from the high prices of imported oil and rice could be recovered through the revenues generated by the outsourcing and the export industries.
“If on the liability side of the national balance sheet, we sustained a loss from rising prices of commodities that we import, then we should endeavor to generate compensating gains on the asset side to the commodities we can export,” Mrs. Arroyo said.
“This asset side consists of hard commodities such as primary products supplemented by soft commodities such as outsource business processing,” the President added.