Philippine officials in New Zealand made a strong pitch with software companies there on the opportunities for information technology in the Philippines.
Ambassador to New Zealand Virginia Benavidez and Consul General Marcos Punsalang made the pitch at a meeting with representatives of the IT sector this month.
“In her presentation, Benavidez highlighted the Philippine (information technology and business processing outsourcing) industry’s strengths, achievements and opportunities as well as the emerging trends of diversification of services from voice to higher value non-voice services (such as KPO, IT programming, game development). She also discussed the incentives being offered by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) for investors,” the Department of Foreign Affairs said.
Benavidez and Punsalang met with the representatives of software development company Cortexo Ltd. and the New Zealand Software Association last January 12 and 13, respectively.
These business meetings were held parallel with the Embassy’s first ever mobile consular mission to Christchurch last January 12 to 14.
They met with Cortexo Ltd. Director Terry Paddy, past President of the New Zealand Software Association, who gave a briefing on his company.
Cortexo Ltd. develops software for electric companies and has applications for regulating electrical use in the energy industries, commercial establishments and domestic households.
Benavidez updated Paddy on the Philippine IT/BPO industry, a $9-billion industry that surpassed India in voice services and is expected to attain its goal of $11 billion in 2011.
The industry is anticipated to earn $25 billion in revenues by 2016.
She also said the Philippine IT/BPO industry is diversifying with higher value services like knowledge processing outsourcing (KPO) and IT software programming, which are growing faster than voice services.
Benavidez also met officers of the New Zealand Software Association (NZSA) led by Chairman Ben Reid at the New Zealand Institute of Information Communication Technology (NZICT) – a state of the art “green” building featuring the latest in energy-saving technology.
Reid informed Benavidez the focus of the NZSA and the Canterbury Software Chapter is on linking with overseas clients to market their software.
Reid is also the Chairman of the Canterbury Software Chapter and the Director of Memia Consulting, an IT consulting firm.
For her part, Benavidez said the Philippines is keen to build more business partnerships with New Zealand given the fact that in Christchurch, there is a Center for Information Technology.
The Philippines is a three time winner of the United Kingdom’s National Outsourcing Association’s Award for Best Outsourcing Destination.
Meanwhile, the DFA said the New Zealand traders acknowledged the good business potentials and complementarity between the New Zealand ICT industry and the Philippine IT/BPO industry.
Source:http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/245955/economy/business/phl-makes-it-pitch-to-nz-traders?ref=subsection_item

