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Central Government, Education

Public sector to boost IT spend in the Philippines

By Robin Hicks | 18 May 2009

The economic gloom in the Philippines is doing little to dampen the uptake of IT services thanks to a number of public sector initiatives, according to a report from research firm Ovum.

The Philippines government plans to set up a central authority for compiling data from financial institutions to make it easier to verify a borrower’s credit worthiness. Once the database is built, there will be a sharp increase in the issuance of credit cards in the country, predicts Ovum, which will further increase the demand for data management, networking and security services.

“While currently Philippines is a small IT services market in revenue terms, less attractive than other South East Asian countries such as Singapore, Vietnam or Malaysia, it offers good opportunities for vendors focused on the public sector,” said Deepika Chaubey, managing analyst at Ovum.

The government is also investing in the education sector, with technology-based programmes such as the computerisation of all public schools and the adoption of e-learning in the urban areas that are scheduled to be completed by 2010.

The government’s intention to modernise all 6,000 public schools, and several private ones as well, will see opportunities open up for vendors, such as providers of web-based learning platforms, education management systems, assessment and data services, and networking services, says Ovum.

“As most of the Philippine based vendors are focusing on providing offshore services, there are opportunities for international IT vendors to cater to the domestic demand,” added Chaubey.

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