Editorial – Great things, despite…

DESPITE the bad image that Mindanao is getting from its lingering troubles, great things are happening in the investments and business fronts in Davao. This can be gleaned from  newspaper reports quoting government and private sector sources.
From the Board of Investments, we learned that investment leads in Davao as of end of 2009 have reached a whopping amount of P11.5 billion. “Investment leads” are inquiries and preliminary groundwork for businesses to be established in an area. According to BOI’s Gil Dureza, at least 80 percent of investment leads are realized. It is the job of BOI and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to follow up and closely monitor foreign and Manila-based companies planning to put up their headquarters or branch offices here, seeing to it that their initial needs are provided for.
A look at the long list of businesses, many of which have already started horizontal development of their projects, gives us an idea of the robust agro-industrial potential that Davao has, the bullish property development sector and the burgeoning business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, indubitably Davao’s sunshine industry in the past five years.
A concern has been raised on the possibility of an imminent shortfall of manpower in the BPO sector. Given that contact and medical transcription centers would need 30,000 seats in less than five years, that shortfall can still be considered a pleasant problem that will go away if addressed quickly by the government and the private sector acting together.
Right now, the quality of the Davao BPO workforce is one of the best in the country.
The absorption of Davao contact center applicants is 7 percent, the highest in the country, with Metro Manila and Cebu only having 3 to 4 percent, testifies Gerardo Dumael, manager of Concentrix, the biggest contact center in Davao City.
Perhaps the strongest proof of the area’s vibrant economy is the excellent collections performance of the Davao Customs Office. While other parts of the country have been experiencing a general slump in customs tax takes, Davao’s performance exceeded targets. Davao’s goals in export and import tax revenues for the whole 2009 of more than P2 billion were achieved as early as October.
The January 2010 collections bodes well for this year’s performance. It’s P248.1 million, or 35 percent, more than the Davao Customs’ goal for the month of P184.1 million. An auspicious beginning, indeed.