Jun

27

The Financial Times Group, comprised of experts in foreign investment, gave notice to the Philippines’ potential as a hub for business, trade and finance and ranked three of the country’s cities in its list of Top 10 Asian Cities of the Future 2007-2008. The list was published by the group’s affiliate Finance Direct Investment (fDi) magazine.

The three Philippine cities (and their respective ranks) are: Quezon City (7th place), Cebu City (8th place) and Davao City (9th place). These cities were evaluated along with over 200 big and small cities in Asia by a panel of judges that includes independent location consultants, corporate professionals and other inward investment experts. The criteria ranged from 60 categories that ranged from cost effectiveness, infrastructure and human resources.

This serves as testament to the Philippines’ evolution as the prime destination for companies to invest their business interest here and for medium enterprises to outsource labor in order to take advantage of the Philippine talent pool’s affordable aptitude.

In order to maintain the nation’s evolution on the right course, the Philippine government has taken measures in improving areas that will mutually benefit its populace and their foreign business partners. One of those areas is the Information Communications and Technology Cyber Corridor.

Launched in 2005, the Philippine Cyber Corridor stretches over 600 miles from Baguio City to Zamboanga and is designed to provide cyber services at par with global standards. This is supported by a $10 billion high bandwidth fiber backbone digital network.

The Cyber Corridor will boost telecommunications, technology and education. The corridor runs the length of all the super regions, from Baguio to Cebu to Davao…There are many wings now to the corridor because enterprising local executives […] have aggressively attracted call centers to their jurisdictions. In this corridor, the English and information and communication technology skills of the youth give them a competitive edge in call centers and other business process outsourcing.

President Gloria Arroyo during her 2006 State of the Nation Address to the 3rd Regular Session of the 13th Congress of the Republic of the Philippines last July 24, 2006.

Last May 5, 2008 President Arroyo inaugurated the Philippine leg of the $550-million, 20,000-kilometer Asia-America Gateway (AAG) fiber cable network project in Bauang, La Union province. The submarine cable system links Malaysia to the United States via Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and the US West Coast.

It is designed to provide 1.92 terabit per second using dense wavelength division multiplexing telecommunication with the potential to support 130,000 simultaneous high definition TV signals.

“The IT companies can breathe easier now. Our call centers cannot afford a few seconds of redundancy,” the President remarked, while referring to the booming outsourcing industry in the Philippines, as well as Asia where the AAG is a big boost to the globalization outsourcing industries.

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References:

  1. “Asian Cities of the Future 2007/2008” 3 December 2007. Foreign Direct Investment. Accessed 27 June 2008. Link here
  2. “3 RP cities make it to the ‘Top 10’ Asian cities of the future” 1 January 2008.  GMA News Philippines. Accessed 23 June 2008. Link here
  3. “Philippine Cyber Corridor”. Philippine Strategic Roadmap for the Information and Communications Technology Sector. Accessed 23 June 2008. Link here
  4. “Arroyo inaugurates RP leg of $550-M cable network project” 27 May 2008. GMA News Philippines. Accessed 23 June 2008.  Link here
  5. “State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Arroyo.” 24 July 2006. 3rd Regular Session of the 13th Congress of the Republic of the Philippines. Accessed 23 June 2008. Link here

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