The Bukidnon which was previously known as hotbed of insurgency is now being explored by some Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) players as a location of this industry.
According to Robert Tinsay, vice chair of the Malaybalay Information and Communications Technology Council, there are now six BPO companies exploring for locations in the province.
The province so far has no BPO listed.
“There are six them (BPO companies), two of them are from Davao, I cannot mention their name for now because it is still incomplete but it is already gaining traction,” Tinsay said at the LIVEX 2018 innovation summit at Marco Polo Hotel.
He said that these companies already made three visits in the city and already identified areas.
He revealed that two months ago they inaugurated the Malaybalay City co-working space.
“It is an innovation hub. The city provided for its all its hardware, internet connection and training equipment,” he said.
He hopes to entice locators to consider the city as their location because it will be much cheaper to locate in Malaybalay compared to the major hubs.
“It was made possible by the Malaybalay city government and Senator Miguel Zubiri and the Governor of Bukidnon, we are offering free co-working spaces for the start-ups and were doing training programs for them and equipping the,” he said.
The co-working space has the capacity of 100 people and was funded by the city government of Malaybalay and the provincial government of Bukidnon.
“As of now we are talking about the second floor, we are going to start with 50 seats as a trial,” he said.
They are hoping to open two of the six BPO companies this year.
“We will be having a meeting next week Monday to firm up the memorandum of understanding and to sign a possible contract,” he added.
This BPO company is located in Cagayan de Oro City, maintains foreign clients, and is looking to expand in Bukidnon.
He said that they are targeting to generate 1,000 jobs this year and next year they hope to generate 2,000 more.
“We are no longer waiting for the government, were initiating in with our confidence with our President to create jobs. At the end of the day we want to create jobs. It is the initiative of the private sector which is being supported by the city government,” he said.
He said that there is a shift of focus because ICT is the key driver right now.
“I think this year ICT will replace the OFW remittance as far as industry wise,” he said.
Tinsay is hopeful that the other four BPO investors will open next year.
