It's True!

Yes, I've decided to leave CICT, as reported in the Inquirer and the Manila Bulletin. No, I haven't yet decided what to do next (the blog is open for suggestions).

Whatever I decide to do, I will bring with me a newfound respect for the honest public servants in the Philippine government, who toil tirelessly for the good of the country, with limited resources and little or no recognition for their efforts. May your tribe increase!

DOLE Workforce Development Summit

At the 2006 Workforce Development Summit, organized by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), I presented a paper on the prospects for the cyberservices industry. You can download the paper from the BPA/P website or by right-clicking on this link and selecting "Save Link As".

The paper contains the industry forecasts for 2006-2010, and as I blogged some weeks back, the prospects are looking good for the Philippines. There is cause for concern however, as it is quite possible that the forecasted growth may be hampered by the lack of human resources to fill the jobs. The paper identifies several issues and suggests strategies to take in addressing these issues.

Within a month, the CICT will be issuing a roadmap document on the project and programs that the government, in partnership with the private sector, will be pursuing to address the workforce shortfall. I'll post a link to the document when it becomes available.

Weekend Fare

I'd like to share a new discovery I made over the weekend. I wanted to take my family to a special treat after watching my youngest perform in "Ang Pagbabalik ni Odysseus" at UP's Malcolm Hall.

We ended up at Cold Stone Ice Cream Parlor in Greenbelt 3, Makati! They have over 20 different flavors which you can combine with numerous "mashings". The ice cream is mashed and mixed on a cold stone with your selection of mix-ins.

We had a ball trying out different combinations, and my favorites were: Peanut Butter topped with hot fudge, and Banana Cream Pie mashed with Choc-Nut. If you have any favorites, post them here and I'll try them the next time I go to Cold Stone!

High-technology Business Districts

Check out the listing on wikipedia for "High-technology Business Districts", there is a new addition to the list - the Philippine Cyberservices Corridor! Please help spread the word!

An Outsider's View

Richard Mills, a Canadian who is currently based in the Philippines, is considered a leading expert on Asia-Pacific outsourcing by ComputerWorld magazine. He has recently been published in the Economist Intelligence Unit's Business Guides to the Philippines, and he is even more upbeat than I am on the BPO industry's prospects in 2006. Please take the time to read his thoughts here.

Happy 2006!

2006 will be a big year for the Philippine BPO industry! I'll soon post the 2005 numbers and what the year ahead looks like. In the meantime, allow me to share with you one of my favorite outsourcing blogs, compiled by Information Week.

Particularly good are the postings of Paul McDougall; some of his 2005 gems are a write-up on what the WTO has to say about offshoring, and what he thinks about Friedman's book, "The World is Flat".

If you haven't read the book, you can purchase an online summary, written by Friedman himself. You may also want to read the Fortune magazine article on Friedman. The Fortune article says if you type "thomas friedman the world is flat" into a search engine, you'll probably find this scathing review by Matt Taibbi, which is also referred to in McDougall's blog. As for me, any outsourcing advocate with a handicap of 5 and whose next book might be about golf is certainly welcome in my home!

8th Philippine Web Awards

Now I finally know what it feels like to say, "Can I have the envelope, please?" With no less than the charming Ms. Joan Miller as my co-presenter, to boot! We were at the Meralco Theater for the 8th staging of the Philippine Web Awards, organized by MediaG8Way Corporation. Congratulations to all the winners, especially my college classmate Jim Ayson, whose PhilMusic.com was one of the websites inducted into the Hall of Fame, and also to my good friends Danny and Marilyn Montano, whose Holy Cow Animation won Best SME Website!

The director gave me a set of cue cards, but I threw caution to the wind and ad libbed about the Webby acceptance speech of Al Gore (of Presidential recount fame), and the demise of the Chinese TV show "Super Girl" (scroll two-thirds down this Newsweek page to read about it). At least in the Philippines, we can still have People's Choice Awards!

Congratulations to the MediaG8Way team, especially Bombim and Delia, and we're certainly looking forward to the 2006 Philippine Web Awards!

*Photo courtesy of Maan Tolentino

Speech: BSA Regional Innovation Forum

Today's speech was entitled "Competitiveness through Government Policy", presented at BSA's Regional Innovation Forum at the Shangri-la Putrajaya in Malaysia. The forum was attended by over 30 policy makers from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, Thailand and the Philippines. The forum agenda included keynote speeches from Robert Holleyman, CEO and President of BSA, and Dr. Stan Liebowitz, noted autor and professor. The objective of the forum was to gain insight into strategies that can be adopted to bolster the growth of the IT industry in the region.

My speech consisted of two sections; the first half presents the job generation goals for the ICT industry in the Philippines, the second half briefly outlines policy initiatives aimed at achieving those goals. For a copy of the presentation, send an e-mail to dondimapa @ gmail.com with "BSA Forum" as the subject.

Workshop: BPA/P Strategic Planning Workshop

Today's workshop is the Strategic Planning Workshop of the Business Planning Association of the Philippines, facilitated by Dr. Ed Morato, professor at the Asian Institute of Management. Congratulations to Mitch Locsin, BPA/P's Executive Director, for a well-organized workshop!

A significant milestone was achieved when the BPA/P officers agreed to align with the job generation target of 1 million by 2010! Another exciting news item was the revelation that Euromoney Institutional Investor Conferences would be holding the 1st Asian BPO Conference in May 2006, and that they had selected Manila as the site!