It was like 10 years ago when the nation's trailblazers in the IT (Information Technology) industry have predicted that the Philippines would become one of the top software producing nations in the world, just second if not first to India in Asia. Government officials then touted the IT industry as a major force in bringing more revenue to the nations purse and as a catalyst in erasing the negative image that maligned the country as a survivor based on dollar remittances by DOH abroad. Schools and universities were once tasked to carry the huge burden in producing skilled graduates that will mobilize and drive the IT industry. Soon, varying IT related courses were offered, with some indistinguishable from the others, up to the point where the industry is flooded with unskilled, incompetent and lost workforce.
Now, a quick and honest assessment is, we haven't lived up to that billing. We lagged behind other countries who joined the race of late. We are witnesses of the constant exodus of skilled software engineers, programmers, system administrators and analysts who in no offense seek for greener pasture abroad. We still haven't seen or heard of a killer software application or a revolutionary thing that came out of the Philippines. In fairness, a lot of IT related jobs has been created since and the number is steadily growing every year. Thanks mainly to foreign IT companies who setup and relocated their branches and offices here due to cheap production costs, tax perks and availability of local talent (which of late has become a concern). The emergence of outsourcing has also helped where local IT companies offer and sell cheap services to foreign markets like BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and call centers. But these are not enough to carry the stagnant economy (largely due to rampant corruption in the government), not enough even to move us an inch closer to the world leaders in the IT industry.
Moving forward, we should have a realization that for the local IT industry to jumpstart the economy and catch up the world's IT leaders, it must produce and create products. Products that can be sold and marketed abroad. Look around, we have Nokia mobile phones from Finland; Sony Ericson mobile phones of Japan; Cisco, 3Com network equipments of the US; Samsung consumer appliances from South Korea; Acer computers from Taiwan; IPOD Nano from the iconic Apple of the US; Microsoft software, Google adsense, Yahoo email, Intel and AMD processor, all these of foreign origin. The same applies to consumer goods. Look again, everyone is sipping and loving their coffee at Starbucks (US); we associate facial tissue to Kleenex (US) and the iconic of all, Coke soda. The list is very long. After all, we have Bananas and Del Montes. We just need more. No more cheap services and outsourcing, just products.
New high-rise IT and commercial buildings sprouting inside Asiatown IT park and reclamation area in Cebu are one of the many indicators that the future of IT (Information Technology) and related businesses is good, confident and promising. Physical infrastructure such as buildings, parks and econ-zones serves as the foundation for businesses to grow. These latest developments are reminiscent to the famed Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan which the government helped put up in the late 80s. Hsinchu Science Park today houses around 200 companies mostly high-tech laboratories, electronic and semiconductor manufactoring plants and wafer/chip fabrication companies, generating an staggering billions of dollars in revenue every year.
