By Maria Teresa Loring / Chief, DTI-EMB Services Division
TOKYO, Japan—The Philippine team, composed of the information and communications technology (ICT) and business-process management (BPM) companies, on Tuesday organized an IT–BPM seminar and prearranged a business-to-business (B2B) meeting in Osaki Bright Core, Tokyo, Japan, as part of the Outbound Business Matching Mission for the IT-BPM sector.
The event was part of the Philippine participation at the 26th Software Development Expo (SODEC 2017) in Tokyo Big Sight, Japan.
The IT-BPM seminar was participated in by 78 Japanese counterparts representing CEOs, operations managers, decision makers and industry influencers in the area of ICT and outsourcing. The event was graced by Deputy Chief of Mission Eduardo M.R. Menez, who opened the seminar.
The Department of Trade and Industry’s Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB) was represented by this year’s head of mission, Assistant Director Agnes Legaspi and the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Tokyo headed by DTI Senior Official Commercial Counselor Bernardita Mathay.
The DTI-EMB and PTIC Tokyo organized the mission jointly with industry and government and partners, namely, the Philippine Software Industry Association led by Jonathan Luzuriaga and the Department of Information and Communications Technology Undersecretary Monchito Ibrahim.
Legaspi welcomed the participants, giving emphasis on maximizing the time to network, negotiate and explore business opportunities during the one-to-one B2B and gather relevant information about the companies’ services and the Japanese clients’ requirements. She concluded her message with a very positive hope that full engagement of the Philippine delegation and their counterparts in this seminar and the B2B matching will further pave the way in generating more businesses and deeper partnerships with Japan.
A testimonial of the Philippine participants’ expertise was delivered by Shingo Tsuboi, president and CEO of Intelligent Business Solutions.
Ibrahim provided a comprehensive talk and presentation on the topic, “Enabling digital opportunities and Innovations in the Philippines”.
Meanwhile, Luzuriaga delivered a talk on this year’s Philippine theme “Go Global, Go Digital, Cocreate with the Philippines”.
Nine Philippine companies presented their service offerings during the seminar, namely, Exist Software, Pointwest Technologies, Saiff Solutions, Personiv, Advance World Systems, Gulliver Offshore Outsourcing, DTSI, Tsukiden Global Solutions and Cybertech.
SODEC is considered one of the most awaited annual and productive international promotion events for the IT-BPM sector. Japan is acknowledged as a major market for the Philippine IT-BPM sector, and as such, the Philippines has brought a team this year composed of various segments of the IT-BPM sectors not only limited to IT outsourcing, but also includes application development and management, big data, analytics, mobile and social-media platforms, BPM, security component development, cloud solution and other ICT-related functions for businesses.
The event aimed to pursue further B2B opportunities and partnerships in the various segments of the IT and BPM industry. In the light of new innovations and technology-driven businesses, participating Philippine and Japanese companies are said to be in the right place and the right time to gather today, as mentioned by Legaspi in her message.
The Philippines’s consistent market presence in Japan for more than a decade now manifests deepening business relationships between Philippine companies and the Japanese counterparts.
The Philippine IT-BPM industry is recognized as the top exporting-services sector in the country. This has positioned the Philippines as a global player. The Philippines is now highly ranked among top outsourcing destinations in the world.
Nine cities of the Philippines made it to the first 100 locations. In the same manner, the Philippines considers Japan as a major partner/market for outsourced services providing significant opportunities in IT and business-process outsourcing, being the third-largest IT market in the world.
Consistent Philippine participation in SODEC and business matching every year in more than a decade now has drawn considerable success, many opportunities and invaluable experiences from participating companies.
For 2017 it encouraged more companies to join, as represented by the 20 established Philippine IT companies (from 16 participating companies last year). This year, featured companies will again wave their banners in the Philippine Pavilion in SODEC at the Tokyo Big Sight from May 10 to 12 inspired by this year’s theme. •