TECH4GOOD
Monchito Ibrahim
The air of optimism was so evident during the last day of the recently held 2022 International Innovation Summit (IIS 2022). The highlight of the event was the launch of the Philippine IT-BPM Roadmap 2028. Led by the umbrella organization, the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), everyone was so upbeat about the targets set in the roadmap. The sector aspires to achieve at least 2.5 million total direct employment and US$59 billion in revenue by the end of 2028. If achieved, this would potentially position the IT and digitally enabled services industry as the biggest contributor to the country’s economy.
These hypergrowth projections have caught our government leaders' attention, including President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., who has spoken about his support for the industry's sustained growth on several occasions. In fact, during his recent trip to New York, he hosted a roundtable meeting attended by many C-level executives of IT companies. During the meeting, he assured the business leaders of his government’s commitment to supporting the growth of their Philippine operations. The Philippine IT-BPM industry today has gone a long way from how it was during its nascent years in the early 2000s when everyone including the government was totally confused about what the industry was trying to do. Today, next to India, the Philippines has established a dominant position in the global IT-BPM industry.
As of the end of 2021, total direct employment in the sector reached 1.44 million with revenues of almost US30 billion and an 8.5 percent contribution to the country’s gross domestic product. It also creates a multiplier effect on the economy. IBPAP projects that the sector has generated at least three million indirect jobs for allied sectors supporting the industry such as retail, food, infrastructure, and transportation. What is even more amazing is that 40 percent of the current workforce or about 576,000, is based in cities outside of Metro Manila. If we use an average salary of 15,000 per month, at least ₱8.6 billion are flowing monthly into the local economy of cities outside Metro Manila that are hosting IT-BPM companies.
The new IT-BPM Roadmap is also projecting that by 2028, 54 percent of the additional 1.1 million employees will actually be based in the countryside. I can think of two possible reasons why this is possible: the IT-BPM companies would like to bring the jobs to where the talents are and the hybrid work arrangement that allows employees to work from home. We saw these trends coming when my former office, CICT (the precursor of what is now DICT) initiated the Next Wave Cities (rebranded to Digital Cities before I left DICT). It was intended to capacitate cities outside of Metro Manila to host IT-BPM operations.
I am certainly humbled by the results we are seeing today.
During the IIS 2022 event which was themed “The Big PH IT-BPM Leap: Growth, Resurgence, Impact, Transformation,” the industry articulated its goal of positioning the Philippines as the experience capital of the world for digitally enabled and customer-centric services while continuously driving sustainable economic growth. Whether it is about customer experience, user experience, and employee experience, they want people to see the country as the top-of-mind choice.
The IT-BPM Roadmap 2028 sets four strategic priorities designed to sustain the exponential growth trajectory of the sector: policy and regulatory support, talent development, infrastructure, and country rebranding.
The industry wants to see clear, relevant, and consistent policies that will help achieve a business-friendly environment. These should not just be evident from a national government level but should cover the local government units as well.
Talent development is an area that is going to be critical to support the return of the industry to hypergrowth mode. Interventions include revisiting the existing curricula and making them more relevant to the current and future needs of the industry, upskilling and reskilling initiatives. I have previously talked in several articles about the need to reimagine our school curricula to ensure that our education system is producing graduates with the right skills needed by the industries.
The development of world-class physical and digital infrastructure remains very critical in ensuring the sustained growth of the industry. This would include real estate spaces designed for IT-BPM operations, workspaces for specialized services, and 5G-enabled fiber networks. It also involves the simplification of permitting processes, especially those of local government units, required to set up digital infrastructures.
Lastly, they want to see the sector and the government working together to create a country rebrand to help position the Philippines as the digital experience capital of the world.
The achievement of the targets set in the new roadmap requires collective hard work from everyone. Recently, the IT-BPM industry was relieved to see the continuation of the WFH arrangements. The solution presented by the government was for PEZA-registered IT-BPM companies to shift to being BOI registered. But the question remains, where are the guidelines?
(The author is the lead convenor of the Alliance for Technology Innovators for the Nation (ATIN), vice president of the Analytics Association of the Philippines, and vice president, UP System Information Technology Foundation.)