It is Not Hard to Imagine

Coming from a province that ranks on the top of the country’s poorest provinces list, it is hard to imagine my hometown being ICT-enabled. The province has the deadly combination of being almost completely agricultural and of being run by an almost completely corrupt local government. The result: abject poverty. This lethal combination has maintained the backwards orientation of the province since after the Americans left. It is almost as if the province abhors development.

Not so long ago, the roads in my province were dust roads; a few years ago, some guy from the capitol building had the good sense to pave them; but the last time I went there for a visit, the paved roads, which were poorly done (probably due to intense corruption), became dust roads again. “Wow!” I thought, “This place is so backward even the roads refuse to improve.”
You’d probably understand by now, why the idea of ICT-enabled services in my province seems peculiar to me. But I believe, hope for the province lies in bringing in the BPO industries that come with the development of ICT.

The increasing demand for more practical and feasible outsourcing sites outside the big cities (Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao); have spurred the growth of ICT in the countryside.

But there is a long way to go before the province can compete with the other cities in the countryside that offer better business environment. Cities like Sta. Rosa, Lipa, Legaspi, Naga, Tagbilaran, Tacloban, Dumaguete, Bacolod, among others currently play hosts to some of the biggest BPO players.

“What attracts locators to these places are the availability of quality workforce, reliable telecommunication facilities, sound business and incentives package from the local governments, stable power supply, and an environment that supports a comfortable expat lifestyle,”* says Monchito Ibrahim, a consultant of Cyberservices Group of CICT.

If only the local government in my province would consider these factors in their development plan, progress is not so hard to imagine.

* Mentioned in his article “Sustaining Competitiveness in the Cyber Corridor, part I,” in his column “Cyberbytes” in ComputerWorld, June 2007. Vol. 17 No. 5.