TWO foreign-based Business Processing Management (BPM) firms are interested to locate in Davao City, the Davao City Investment Promotions Center (DCIPC) said.
Newly-appointed DCIPC officer in charge, Lemuel Ortonio told reporters Tuesday during the Davao Business Forum at Dermpath, SM City Davao that DCIPC with Information Communication Technology (ICT)-Davao, Inc. will assist the these new locators by touring them around to Information Technology (IT)-enabled buildings in the city where BPO spaces are available.
“The two BPM firms will be toured separately. The tour will start on Wednesday, August 31,” he said.
Ortonio, however, withheld the identity of the prospective investors as nothing is official yet, only inquiries.
He said that Felcris Centrale will be included in the investment tour.
Based on the data from the Association of Mixed-use Property Developers (AMPD), a total of 19,256 square meters are available space for IT-BPM companies as of the first quarter of this year. Some 10,000 sq.m. of which are from Felcris Centrale.
John Irene Del Campo, external vice president for industry promotions of AMPD, in an earlier interview said, the city still has enough BPO spaces to cater the demand here.
The industry is on positive direction as the member companies of AMPD are considered as good developers located in strategic location (accessible and feasible) for construction and holds a good track of records. AMPD currently has six members and growing as it intends to actively invite more local and homegrown property developers.
Present members of AMPD are Damosa Land Inc., Lanang Business Park by Dominic and Sons Realty and Development Corporation, Felcris Centrale, JFM Development Corp., Matina IT Park, Metro Ace Innovplas Corp.
Growing by leaps and bounds, the ICT industry in Davao City, in the latest ratings by Tholons ranked, for the year 2015 as the top 66th business process outsourcing (BPO) destination of the Top 100 in the world.
Tholons, a services globalization and investment advisory firm, recognized Davao City anew as one of the biggest movers in its 2016 annual survey of the top 100 outsourcing destinations in the world, ranking 66th worldwide, some three places higher than last year's 69th place.
“For 2016 onward, we remain very confident and bullish about the industry as we continue to remain very active, to be able to jump for three ranks is really quite an achievement for Davao, being up a notch higher is very difficult to achieve because in the past three years we are ranked alternately 69th or 70th place,” Samuel Matunog, president of the ICT-Davao Inc. said in a separate interview.
Meanwhile, Ortonio also said that last week, a foreign manufacturing plant company presented its investment proposal to DCIPC however status of the investment is at stake as the company’s operations will have a mining component.
In 2015, the City Council passed an ordinance disallowing any entity to engage in any business involving mining operations within Davao City. The city ordinance states that "no approval shall be granted or issued by the city through its Sangguniang Panglungsod (City Council) to any person, natural or juridical, to undertake any and all forms of mining operation in any area within the territorial jurisdiction of Davao City, except rocks and mineral substances classified under the quarry resources."
Ortonio said that interest for investments here is on an upward trend.
Most of the inquiries, he said, are focused on IT-BPM and tourism, among others.
