ICT/BPO sector eyes rural areas

RURAL Impact Outsourcing is being pushed in a bid to provide rural areas the opportunity to be actively involved in the information communication technology (ICT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

Lizabel G. Holganza, president of National ICT Confederation of the Philippines (NICP), told reporters they are looking for various measures to engage rural communities participate in the ICT sector, and one of these ways is through rural impact outsourcing, where some sectors of the community. such as the out-of-school youths or the women or those who did not finish proper schooling — can be taught simple but internet=driven ICT work like image tagging.

She said this can be an effective strategy for areas that are prone to conflicts.

“When people are engage in productive work, they will not think of conflicts,” Holganza said.

She said rural impact outsourcing has the capability to bring changes in the community through generation of jobs and economic growth.

She said through the jobs generated by the rural impact outsourcing, it will lead an individual to live a much productive life and giving them no reason tp move out of their community.

For Mindanao, they are planning to implement this strategy in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

But she was quick to add that before implementing such strategy, there is still the need to look into the community’s readiness.

“Because, sometimes, even if they are the ones we help, if the mindset of the people in that area is not ready to receive that kind of help, it will not work,” Holganza said.

She added that there is still the problem when it comes to the perception of the ICT and BPO industry.

“In many instances, we still need to really drive [up] the appreciation of the ICT and BPO industry. Not all sectors of the society appreciate it as of now,” Holganza said.

She said rural impact outsourcing is now a growing trend among big multi-national companies that are committed to help those in the rural areas.