PICE pushes Philippines as global center of excellence for ESO

The Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (PICE) is working on a roadmap that will include engi­neering services as a new growth area for the country’s Informa­tion Technology and Business Process Management (IT-BPM) sector.

PICE President Ernesto S. de Castro, said that the Philip­pines is already no. 1 in voice services, but the challenge is to move from voice to non-voice, in particular to go into the high value-added activities and link these with services embedded to manufacturing, finance, design and engineering.

Citing industry date, Dr. De Castro said, the Philippine IT-BPM industry accounted for 8% of the 2015 GDP with revenue of US$22 billion and direct employ­ment of about 1.1 million.

By 2022, the industry is look­ing at a revenue target of US$44 billion and creating an additional 720,000 direct employees

To sustain its growth, the industry is looking at emerging sectors like Engineering Services Outsourcing (ESO) for higher val­ued services that can be offered by the Philippines.

Per industry data, ESO ac­counts for only 1 percent of the Philippine IT-BPM Industry with a revenue of US$300 million and 13,000 employees in 2015

Frost & Sullivan, which is helping the industry with the roadmap 2022, identified “ESO as a key growth sector” for the Philippine IT-BPM industry.

We have formed an associ­ation to promote the growth and development of the ESO sector in the Philippines and increase its over-all competitiveness in the global market, de Castro said.

The Philippines, he said currently stands at about 0.6 percent of the global market and if we will grow at the same rate as the forecasted global ESO demand, we may be look­ing at US$900 million by 2020 and ESO need to grow 20 per­cent yearly.

“We are here to promote the growth and development of the engineering services outsourcing sector in the Phil­ippines and increase its over-all competitiveness in the global market” de Castro said, add­ing we want to be known as an ESO destination and market our engineering capabilities.

The PICE envisioned the Filipino civil engineer as a “global brand” by 2025 and the Philippines to be a “Global Center of Excellence for Engi­neering Services.”