PEZA, IBPAP SET PARTNERSHIP

THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) announced on Thursday, March 30, a partnership with the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (Ibpap) that aims to target delivery of employment, most especially the IT-BPM industry.

“Two of our goals are aligned with each other. Just like PEZA, we have the responsibility for delivering employment and export service revenues to the country,” said Jack Madrid, Ibpap president and chief executive officer.

According to PEZA, a total of 1,582 IT-BPM industry activities registered in PEZA which generated a total of P337 billion in investments, $17 billion in exports and 1,095,622 direct jobs in 2022.

Moreover, PEZA approved six projects from the IT sector in the first quarter of 2023, and is expected to bring P105 million worth of investments, $8 million in exports and 624 direct jobs.

It also targets 1 million jobs by 2028.

“The IT is an indispensable industry helping us grow the economy, and it is about time that we give back to the industry to be able to achieve its 1 million jobs target by 2028,” said PEZA Director General Tereso Panga.

Aside from job creation, one thing that this partnership wants to address is the talent crisis as an area of concern where it causes job mismatch often times.

“We have a severe talent demandsupply gap... We need to address our talent crisis. [Surely, we are a country with [a] rich pool of talent and] the result of that is that many people want to continue to invest [in the Philippines]. But increasingly, the challenge is not the cost — it’s the people,” Madrid explained.

He is also eyeing more IT park developers and IT locator companies to expand operations in the provinces which, according to PEZA, constitute 40 percent of current total IT investments nationwide, and with Metro Manila still registering an annual uptake of 500,000 square meters of office spaces.

“We now live in a world where being able to work remotely is important,” Madrid said.