MANILA, Philippines--A public-private advisory council will be created soon to provide general directions for an initiative to attract business process outsourcing firms to locate their operations outside Metro Manila.

This was the decision reached during the first meeting of the "next-wave cities" working group convened by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), and the Department of Trade and Industry Regional Operations Group (DTI-ROG), according to Gigi Virata, information and research director of BPAP.

The next-wave cities initiative is part of 2010 roadmap of the BPAP, which identified possible locations for investment by outsourcing companies, she added in an interview.

Virata said the convening agencies are inviting more government agencies and industry associations to form the advisory council. The group intends to invite representatives from the Board of Investments, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, among others.

The working group also met last week to review the current research tools being used to help companies evaluate potential cities where they could set up shop, she said.

The group currently uses a "scorecard" to gauge the number of graduates, the labor pool, and the density of residents of an identified city.

The working group has identified at least 18 next wave cities in the country. Fifteen of these 18 cities have already established information and communications technology (ICT) councils, which involves representatives from both government and private sector, Virata added.

"The advisory council will eventually decide how to go forward," the BPAP research director said. One of the objectives of the council is to look at better ways to evaluate cities for possible locations of outsourcing companies.