Investors’ accessibility to relevant data for the Region VI will soon be handy as the result of the recently concluded Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) Technology and Innovation Mapping Workshop held on June 24 to 25, 2021, here in Iloilo City.
“We are creating more opportunities in the region. This can be considered a magnet for interested investors to locate in Region VI,” said Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)-6 Regional Director Rebecca M. Rascon.
The two-day mapping workshop has identified and realized available information of the various segments in terms of talent development, business environment, cost efficiency and infrastructure in Western Visayas.
“Locators and investors are always looking at places to expand, anchored on these four parameters. This activity spearheaded by DTI Region VI, aims to identify these four measurements across the six provinces that make up the region,” said Jonathan D. De Luzurriaga, president of the Philippine Software Industry Association and the CEO of Spring Valley Tech Corp.
De Luzurriaga said, “This will have a very positive effect as far as Region VI viability is concerned in addressing the need for information of locators and investors. DTI Region VI is the first to conduct such an activity across the entire nation.”
Earlier, De Luzurriaga said that the identification of baseline data would create vast opportunities in the region as there are a myriad of activities to explore in trying to match the opportunities to capabilities. He added that the activity “signifies Region VI’s intention to become the destination of choice for the IT-BPM industry.”
Rascon said that there is a need to raise the awareness of local government units on the IT-BPM sector to gain preferential support from different public and private sector institutions for the needed interventions.
DTI Asst. Regional Director Ermelinda P. Pollentes said, “IT-BPM shows the way in this pandemic. We have to embrace it in order to achieve our ambitions for digital transformation, at least here in Western Visayas.”
De Luzurriaga served as the main program facilitator of the two-day event.
Other facilitators during the workshop were Leif Brian Margallo, CEO and founder of Virtual Workforce Professionals Philippines; Adrian Funtelar, CEO of IXL Philippines Solutions; and, Atty. Jocelle Batapa-Sigue, chairman of the board of Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology (BNEFIT).
All the six provincial directors of DTI VI: Ma. Carmen I. Iturralde (OIC-Aklan), Mercedes A. Young (Antique), Ken Queenie R. Cuñada (OIC-Capiz), Ma. Dinda R. Tamayo (OIC-Guimaras), Felisa Judith Degala (OIC-Iloilo), and Rachel N. Nufable (OIC-Negros Occidental) also served as workshop facilitators.
The activity was held online via Zoom.
