PGMA to continue legacy tour
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The Cyber Corridor is just the beginning. The tour of the administration’s “legacy projects” will continue in the
coming weeks, with Tourism Central Philippines next in the agenda.
In a press briefing in Malacanang today, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Gary Olivar told reporters the
“legacy communication campaign has been making headway.”
On Monday, the President embarked on the Cyber Corridor tour with Angeles University Foundation constituting
the first leg of the week-long journey.
The Cyber Corridor hosts ICT (information and communications technology) and BPO (business process
outsourcing) from Luzon to the Visayas and Mindanao.
Initially confined to Metro Manila and Metro Cebu, the digital infrastructure has since grown to include cities and
capital towns all over the country. Likewise, from a mere $24 million in 2001, the ICT and BPO sector has
brought in $7.3 billion in revenues last year.
“It is a continuing task, and not an easy one, but we have to inform the people of what has been done,” Olivar
said.
The project, Olivar stressed, is not meant to make the President popular. He added it is a simple initiative to
inform the people of the achievements made under the economic development plan.
In her 2006 State of the Nation Address, President Arroyo announced the creation of five Super Regions. Apart
from the Cyber Corridor, the other four are Agribusiness Mindanao, Tourism Central Philippines, North Luzon
Agribusiness Quadrangle, and Luzon Urban Beltway.
The President, in that address, noted the importance of grouping selected regions and provinces by their
economic strengths to stimulate economic growth and development so that the Philippines can keep up with its
Asian neighbors.
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PGMA lauds voc-tech as job creators
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Vocational and technical education is what the country needs to find its rightful place in the modern world.
In a speech delivered before students and faculty of Don Honorio Lopez Institute of Technical Institute (formerly
Sentro ng Karunungan Vocational Institute) in Tayuman, Tondo, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said skills
training is an indispensable tool to guide the country to the future.
“This school, by helping young and not-so-young students acquire vocational training, prepares them for the
challenges,” the President said of the institute.
The President earlier toured the institute’s new three-story annex, where classes in fashion jewelry making,
cosmetology, hair science, reflexology, hotel and restaurant management, food trade, baking, cell phone repair
and maintenance, and computer repair were held.
“It is my honor to tell you that 1,000 of the students here are scholars of PGS (President Gloria Scholarships) in
food and beverage, barista, hair cutting, massage, motorcycle repair, carpentry, plumbing masonry, welding,
and coming soon culinary arts,” she said.
Since the President assumed office in 2001, the national budget for education has doubled, to almost P200
billion. Investments in technical and skills training during the last nine years have approximated the combined
spending of the three previous administrations.
“We did not just improve the public school system, we have also increased the number of poor but deserving
students in the private school system through the government scholarship programs,” the President said. “In
science and engineering, we have provided college and post graduate education to over 600,000 scholars.”
As a result of these investments, the national achievement test scores went up from 44 percent to 55 percent in
elementary schools and 36 percent to 47 percent in high schools in the last four years.
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‘Next gov’t should build on PGMA’s accomplishments’
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has made the Philippines a global powerhouse in the business process
outsourcing (BPO) industry, and the next administration should build on this accomplishment.
Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Gary Olivar and Director Dennis Arroyo of the National Economic and
Development Authority (NEDA) made the observation at a media briefing this morning in Malacanang.
“From a virtual non-entity in 2001,” Olivar said, “the President has lifted the BPO sector to the status of a
sunshine industry that generated last year $7.3 billion in revenue, or about 4 to 5 percent of our Gross Domestic
Product (GDP).”
The BPO industry, Olivar added, insulated the country from the global economic downturn by generating close to
half a million jobs in 2009. In 2001, he noted, the fledgling industry only 2,000 workers.
For his part, Arroyo said the government expects the industry to generate some $13 billion revenue by 2011. He
added that by 2020, the amount could go up to as much as $100 billion in a global industry of $500 billion, or
about 1/5 of the market share.
If the next administration does the right thing, the Philippines could become number one in the industry,
considering the telecommunications and digital infrastructure already in place and the high demand for the
English-proficient, highly-skilled, and easily trainable Filipino workforce.
With a population of 90 million, the Philippines is next only to India’s one billion population as the world’s top
BPO outsourcing destination.
The two officials said the country’s $7.3 billion BPO revenue last year is just behind India’s $9 billion earnings.
Arroyo called on Congress to pass the pending bill creating a Department of Information and Communications
Technology (DICT), which will institutionalize the Commission on Information and Communications Technology
(CICT), which now oversees the country’s digital infrastructure.
The NEDA chief said the next government should likewise continue the President’s educational thrust. He
pointed out that right now more than 5,000 public high schools have been given computers, with 4,000 of them
connected to the Internet.
During the briefing, Arroyo disclosed a plan by PLDT to use the Meralco power posts for broadband connections.
According to Arroyo, this will further spur growth of the ICT and BPO sector, especially in the fields of legal and
medical transciptions, animation and 3D design, and software development.
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