Bohol eyes BPO

center in 2011

WE have built a digital communication infrastructure that could boost local jobs, but will investors take the bait?

Taking the cue from the country’s overtaking India as the business process outsourcing (BPO) capital of the world, Bohol officials eye offering Bohol to investors as a future BPO center in 2011, reveals Governor Edgar Chatto during his weekly radio program.  

Recently completing a fiber optic link that connects Bohol to a major information communications hub, local efforts have also succeeded in opening up slots to accommodate at least 10,500 seats for call center and BPO agents, Chatto said.

Recent records tell that Bohol has only a single call center operating in Tagbilaran despite an infrastructure that could accommodate practically a thousand times more, a graduate from a computer learning center shared. 

With at least five Bohol schools offering ICT and call center operations courses, even the manpower support has proven to be a formidable force for now, he added.

A year after putting up the infrastructure support for the miracle industry that has netted billions  of revenues for the government, government leaders here are taking a serious look at the prospects of a bullish BPO here.

The newly organized Bohol Information Communication Technology Council (BICT) supervised by the Department of trade and Industry and the Provincial Government has been in a series of meetings to usher in the golden age of ICT in Bohol, the latest of which was this week, Capitol sources said.

Governor Edgar Chatto, at the recent Kita ug ang Gobernador Friday was ecstatic about the present Bohol capability to accommodate seats for call center and outsourcing industries.

Now with the digital infrastructure and manpower support, Bohol is in a threshold of opening the gates for investors to bring in job opportunities for communication technology workers here and nearby provinces.

More on this, the governor said he is inviting the Commission on Information Communication Technology (CICT) through Commissioner Monchitio Ibrahim to meet with the local council and leaders to iron out the details of the plan.

The moment ICT starts in Bohol, there would be more to come as the government could build more and more infrastructure to enhance the industry, Chatto said. (racPIABohol)