Negros execs see 41,000 jobs in call center sites

BACOLOD CITY—Officials of Negros Occidental are expecting to create at least 41,000 jobs through the provincial government’s plan to turn a 12,000-square-meter government lot into a hub for call centers and projects being lined up by private investors.

Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. said the provincial government will put up a building on the lot currently occupied by the Paglaum Sports Complex to house so-called information technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) establishments, more commonly known as call centers.

The project, to be known as Negros First Cyberpark, was expected to create at least 1,000 jobs, according to the governor.

The governor, speaking during the Negros First ICT Summit, said he expects another 40,000 jobs to be created by SM group of companies, owner of some of the country’s largest malls, when it builds 10 12-story buildings for call center firms on government lot along Gatuslao Street.

The 10 buildings would be built around a convention center that SM plans to build at the center of the lot, the governor said.

The governor said economic zones would also rise in the cities of Silay, Talisay, Bago, Kabankalan, Sagay and Victorias.

Ivan John Enrile Uy, chair of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), also said at the summit that Bacolod City is the perfect location for call centers.

He said the city has been tagged as an ideal destination for call centers, where workers glued to telephones and computer sets take local or foreign calls to perform tasks for various multinational or local firms that are usually done by office-bound employees.

Uy said Bacolod is on the list of top 100 ideal destinations for call center businesses. The government, he said, is trying to attract more call center investments outside Metro Manila.

“With this strategy, we will decongest Metro Manila,” said Uy. At least 20 percent of all call centers have decided to locate outside Metro Manila and Metro Cebu, he said.

The call center industry, he said, has employed at least 525,000 workers and brought in more than $9.1 billion in revenue to the Philippine economy.

On the list of top 100 cities in the world for call centers prepared by Tholons, an international research firm, Manila is No. 4, Cebu is No. 9, Davao is No. 69, Sta. Rosa in Laguna is No. 88, Iloilo is No. 98 and Bacolod is No. 100, according to Uy.