24 October 2005 – Consul General Cecilia B. Rebong of the Philippine Consulate General in New York, USA, reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that nineteen leading Filipino Information Technology (IT) and IT-Enabled Service (ITES) companies promoted their products and services to and interacted with more than 50 CEOs and other key officers of interested US companies at a half-day Business Outsourcing Forum sponsored by the Philippine Consulate General and the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) held at the Philippine Center in New York on 20 October 2005.

Consul General Rebong welcomed to the Forum the nineteen Filipino IT and ITES companies, namely, Advanced Contact Solutions, Inc.; ADEC Solutions, Inc.; Ambergris Solutions, Inc.; Berthaphil, Inc. Business Park; Business Process Outsourcing International, Inc.; Comfac Global Group; Diversified Technology Solutions International, Inc.; Exist Software Labs, Inc.; Eximius BPO Services, Inc.; Innove Communications-GlobeQuest; Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company; Pointwest Technologies Corp.; Quisumbing Torres; SENCOR; SPI Technologies, Inc.; Teledata Philippines, Inc.; Transprocure Corp.; Global Procurement Solutions and Services, Inc.; and Virtual Assistants Philippines, Inc.

They participated in the Forum as part of the business mission headed by DTI Senior Undersecretary Thomas Aquino designed to further increase awareness of the country’s IT/ITES industry in the highly lucrative US market, and hopefully close business deals with some American companies.

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Albert F. del Rosario opened the forum by reiterating the Philippine Government’s support for the Philippine Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, saying “by supporting the Philippine ICT industry in terms of putting into place much needed policies and regulations, the Philippine Government is helping the local industry grow and increase its competitiveness in the world market, and also the local economy in terms of job creation.”

Ambassador del Rosario illustrated this by way of discussing recent government policies designed to strengthen the local ICT industry, such as the establishment of a Commission on Information and Communications Technology, the passage of the E-Commerce Law (which recognized the validity of e-records, e-contracts and digital signatures, and declared ‘hacking’ as a criminal offense), and the passage of the Intellectual Property Code.

Consul General Rebong said that DTI Undersecretary Thomas Aquino spoke on the advantages of the Philippines as a location of e-services such as available quality human resources, superior infrastructure support, strategic location of the Philippines vis-à-vis other countries within and outside the region, cultural affinity with the West, quality of life for expatriates, and strong government support.

The Consul General further reported that the speeches were followed by firm-level presentations, where the Philippine IT/ITES firms presented their respective products and services while sharing the common value proposition of quality service at low cost.  The Filipino firms all spoke about the country’s world-class infrastructure and services, highly skilled manpower, and competitively priced real estate, all making the Philippines an ideal location for any IT/ITES-related enterprise.

The Philippine IT/ITES firms made their presentations in front of more than 50 CEOs and other key officers representing the broad spectrum of US companies interested in learning more about the Philippines’ ICT industry.  The US companies represented in the Forum included Merrill-Lynch-Global Private Client, Citicorp Investment Services, Welch Capital Partners LLC, MCI, Citibank, Hfybro Group, Inc., and Altria Group, Inc.

Consul General Rebong stated that before the October 20 Business Forum, the Philippine IT/ITES firms participated at the OutsourceWorld Expo held from 18 – 19 October 2005 at the New York Metropolitan Pavilion.  Senior Trade Representative Eugene Reyes of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in New York said, “the Philippine IT delegation this time is, by far, the biggest to participate in an outsourcing exhibition and conference in the US mainland.”

Contracts originating from the US currently account for more than 40% of total outsourcing transactions (call centers and business process outsourcing) in the Philippines.  The US is followed by the UK (20%), Germany (12%) and the rest of Europe (16.5%).  Industry analysts predict the demand for outsourcing by US clients to increase to 60% by 2008.  Given this forecast, Philippine IT/ITES firms – with the active support of the Philippine Government – are further strengthening their sales strategies to increase their share of the world market for offshore services.   END