Philippine Cyber Corridor
The Philippine Cyberservices Corridor is a plan that is being pursued by the government of the Philippines to create interconnected centers of technology-related services, that are spread out all over the country. Services include business process outsourcing, medical transcription, outsourcing of animation, and the like. It is part of the ten-point agenda of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and is one of the five "super-regions" outlined in her 2006 State of the Nation Address.
In 2005, the country employed about 100,000 BPO and customer care agents, with employment growing yearly. This growth is expected to accelerate by the completion of the corridor. It is estimated that 200,000 people are working in 120 BPO (mostly Contact Centers) in the Philippines in 2006, and expected to bring in revenues of US$3.8 billion for the year. Overall, Philippine BPO is forecasted to earn US$13 billion for the year 2010.
Services
Customer care agents generally speak English and Spanish. Other languages include Japanese, Chinese and Arabic.
Locations
The corridor will stretch 600 miles from the city of Baguio in the north of the country to the city of Zamboanga in the south of the country.
Call centers have opened in Bacolod City, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro and Baguio. Business process outsourcing operations have also sprung up in Angeles, Legaspi, and Tacloban. Medical transcription agents centers have been established in Dumaguete, Davao, and Naga.
A major achievement of the Philippine Cyberservices Corridor is the establishment of the Philippine Silicon Alley which is centered in the University of the Philippine Technology Park along C.P. Garcia and Katipunan Avenue. The Technology Park houses 20 software and firmware outsourcing companies which include the JAVA Research and Development Center, SYSTEMA Computer Solutions Corp., MICOM and ASTRA. The Technology Park also has a network of over 60 small and medium software companies being incubated around the area and was recently awarded by the World Bank Infodev project as the most successful incubation center in Asia.
A major center of the corridor, Silicon Gulf, is also being constructed. It is based in Davao.