Cebu seeks closer ties with Korea’s IT industry
By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 10:28:00 06/20/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- Cebu is attracting not just tourists but university professors and IT experts from one of the most high-tech countries in the world: South Korea.
Representatives from government and private sector groups -- including the Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency (KIPA) and software maker HannSoft -- will be attending the Philippine Open Source Summit later this month in Cebu City.
The president of Kangwon University, one of South Korea's top universities, will also attend and sign a memorandum of agreement with universities based in Cebu.
Under the partnership, Kangwon will grant scholarships to Cebu schools and send some of its professors to the country to give lectures, according to Bonifacio Belen, executive director of the Cebu Education Development Foundation (CEDF-IT).
"Kangwon is considered one of the top engineering schools (in Korea), especially in electronics and wireless. Topics of interest include new technologies like RFID (radio frequency identification)," Belen said in a phone interview with INQUIRER.net.
"This exchange program is ideally during the winter months in Korea so at the same time, their professors can enjoy the weather here while doing their lectures," said Belen, who has visited South Korea at least twice in the first half of this year in preparation for the summit.
CEDF-IT, a government-private sector consortium promoting the IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in Cebu, is organizing the open source summit.
Belen said at least 10 schools will be granted scholarships enabling them to choose students to study in Kangwon.
"This will include top schools like University of San Carlos, Southwestern University and also Siliman University (in Dumaguete City) and Bohol University from nearby provinces," Belen added.
CEDF-IT goal is to forge tripartite linkages between the government, business groups and schools. The same model, Belen noted, worked for Silicon Valley in the United States and in South Korea.
Eventually, Belen is hoping that forging closer ties with the Koreans will result in advancing Cebu as a center for IT innovation and technology entrepreneurship.
|
