The Information technology -business process management (IT-BPM) industry is poised to achieve this year nearly a quarter of its end 2028 goals on revenues and employment , boosting optimism of hitting five-year roadmap targets it has set for itself.
“The numbers, they’re good. We are off to a good start,” said Jack Madrid, president of the IT Business Process Association of the Philippines, at the opening of the International IT-BPM Summit 2023 in Okada Manila yesterday.
According Madrid, the industry has added $5.9 billion in revenues and 257,000 new jobs since its roadmapping exercise started early this year.
By the end of 2023, the industry would have ended with 1.7 million workers, up 8.7 percent from a year ago; and reached $35.4 billion in revenues, an increase of 8.8 percent from 2022.
Madrid said the contribution of the IT-BPM industry to the GDP would increase to 8.8 percent this year from just 7 percent in 2022.
At end 2023 levels, IBPAP shall have attained 20 percent and 23 percent of the roadmap goals in revenues and jobs, respectively.
The roadmap eyes to add 1.1 million jobs by 2028 of which 600,000 will be generated outside Metro Manila.
At the end of the roadmap, the industry should grow into a $59-billion revenue, or about 9 percent of GDP.
“Our goal is to be the number one digital experience hub by 2030,” said Madrid.
He said the 1.1 million jobs goal “is the most aggressive of all our scenarios” and noted the need for the collective effort of the industry, academe and government in upskilling talent and in strengthening the education system to make Filipinos employable by the industry.
While brushing aside threat to IT-BPM jobs of artificial intelligence (AI), Madrid believes AI can be harnessed with personalized interaction.
“My goal is the fusion of AI and EI (emotional intelligence)…(which) will enable our employee handle more complex tasks,” Madrid said, adding the IT-BPM industry is all about customer service.
“We will need human capital. Talent is the bedrock of the industry.
There is a global war for talent and we need to address this talent gap more aggressively,” he said, citing IT, software, game development and healthcare services are among the higher value services that the Philippines can offer.
Madrid also said IBPAP will continue to push for measures that would ease doing business in the country and would bat for the amendments to the anti-cyber crime law to make the industry more competitive.
