MINDANAO MOVING FORWARD IN 2009

The year 2008 played a very significant milestone for Mindanao. Amidst the fear of global economic recession, we had proven in the past that we are able to withstand challenges and obstacles. Local and foreign investments overflowed in Mindanao that it can now be considered the priority location for business due to its natural resources and highly skilled human resources.

Mindanao, specifically Davao City, is now considered the Next Generation ICT hub. According to the study conducted by XMG Global Off-shoring Leadership Study, 3 years from now the city will be emerge as one of the top sites for off-shore business processes. It came in par with other locations like Montevideo, Uruguay; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Casablanca, Morocco. It also revealed that the city is considerably higher than other Tier-2 off-shoring cities globally. The city boasts its various educational institutions yielding a higher number of Information technology (IT) and BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) qualified graduates than Subic, Clark and Baguio by 689%, 278% and 40% respectively. The JIB e-Academy, Davao and Mindanao’s largest call center agents’ training school could hardly cope up with the demands of contact centers from Manila that had put up offices in Davao City.

Davao City’s population is 71% higher than Cebu City, 499% larger than Olongapo-Subic City 333% higher than Angeles-Clark City and 340% larger than Baguio City. The city’s estimated workforce is twice of Cebu, 9 times of Subic and 7 times of Clark and 6 times of Baguio. This has not even taken to account the manpower pool at the nearby cities and provinces of Davao City.

As of today, the city already has around ten (10) BPO centers and is expecting more BPO’s to open since there are two (2) giant mall companies, Ayala in partnership with Anflocor and Robinson’s that will set up IT/BPO parks and is expected to open late 2009. The creation of the parks will generate more jobs and attract more investors to consider Mindanao as a new business destination.

The abrupt spread of IT/BPO parks within the whole of Mindanao created a lot of opportunities for its locals. Mindanao can now be considered to be one of the fastest rising cities in the country. It may have already gone even beyond Metro Cebu.

A government-owned telephone company also eyes Mindanao as an investment destination for its expansion. MEDCo Undersecretary Leyretana said that the representatives of Telekom Brunei Berhad (TelBru) already met with Davao City’s ICT players.

TelBru board chair and delegation head Dato Paduka Hj Othman expressed the company’s interest in exploring possible partnerships with the Information Technology-Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) sector in Mindanao.

Mindanao’s Communications Technology has gone greater heights as before. There are already 749,217 installed fixed telephone lines in Mindanao and 33 percent of which are subscribed which translates to a total of 247,344 fixed telephone subscribers across the island-region. It is still continuously developing due to the recent investments of foreign BPO players.
With this developments and investments Mindanao has placed itself in the ICT/BPO investment destination map. Looking forward Mindanao might be their top priority.

Mindanao is also known for its natural abundance of its agricultural resources and products. Within 2008, the state-run Land Bank of the Philippines facilitated Php 17.2 billion loan-exposure to Mindanao. The loan was used mostly by Mindanao farm growers for their expansion and upgrading for their facilities.

Coconut oil remains to be Mindanao’s top export product making up at least 31% of its revenue for the first half of 2008. It posted a value of $481.10 million during the first quarter which is about 106% increase compared to last year’s figures on the same period.

Banana made it big by posting $204.86 million, a 4.7% increase as to last year’s statistics. Banana chips exports from Southeastern Mindanao were the only ones spared when Chinese authorities confiscated banana product shipments from Philippines reacting to a report that it contained high levels of the preservative sulfur dioxide.

Other top export-revenue generators are the organic chemicals such as lauryl, cetyl, and stearyl alcohol which generated $78.83 million, flat-rolled iron products and non-alloy steel with $67.31 million, iron ore agglomerates (sinters) at $ 66.05 million, nickel ores at $ 64.57 million, preserved pineapples at $ 55.34 million, tuna at $ 50.23 million, and fresh pineapples at $ 30.29 million.

Canned tuna remain another top export product for Central Mindanao. It reached $136.60 million on the first half of the year alone.

Mindanao’s top export market is the United States of America which gets at least 25% of all the export products. Mindanao earned over $378.65 million, a 63% increase over last year for exports to US alone.

MEDCo had identified some Mindanao’s other major export markets such as the Netherlands for coconut oil (crude and refined), China for nickel ores and coconut oil, South Korea for organic chemicals and fresh bananas, Malaysia, Iran, Taiwan and Singapore.

Recently, Mindanao’s export revenue from Indonesia posted $34 million compared $4 million last year, which over 800% increase for Mindanao’s flat-rolled products of iron and non-alloy steel, rice in the husk suitable for sowing and other anionic washing preparations..

It also gained a 70% increase in export revenue from Taiwan coming from $ 18 million last year to $ 31 for just the first semester of this year Mindanao’s organic chemicals, natural rubber and fresh bananas.

One way or another Mindanao has proven that even with the turmoil of a supposed war or economic recession; Mindanao can go leaps and bounds with its economy. Our rich natural resources and the strong confidence of the Mindanawans will always be our armour against all odds.

(Joji Ilagan Bian is a strong and respected advocate for the development of the region. She is Chair of Joji Ilagan Foundation ( www.jojiilagancareercenter.com) ; President , Phil. Call Centers Alliance and Mindanao Tech Voc Schools Association; Mindanao Rep, Export Development Council. Email comments jojibian2@yahoo.com)