Cebu is an elongated island located at the center of the Philippine archipelago, about 600 kilometers south of Manila. Its location has made Cebu the base for most of the country's domestic shipping and the gateway to the central and southern Philippines. It has a sheltered deep water port, an international airport, a skilled industrious workforce and good infrastructure. Its capital is Cebu City, the oldest and second largest city in the country, which forms part of the Cebu Metropolitan Area. Cebu has an adequate land available for industrial expansion. It has an abundance of beauty. Beaches, coral atolls, islands and rich fishing grounds surround Cebu.


According to Cebu Investment Promotions Center, the following are the reasons why Cebu is considered as an Investment Destination:


Actually, in a list made by the Finance Direct Investment (fDi) magazine of the Financial Times Group, foreign investment experts have again noticed Cebu City's potential for business and ranked it as eighth of the Top 10 Asian Cities of the Future. Cebu City also ranked fourth in the list of 10 most cost-effective cities, seventh in the best quality of life category and second in development and promotion, next only to Singapore.


Cebu, which lies in the heart of Region VII, is a home of the finest IT companies in the country. The province presently has the largest software export industry outside Metro Manila. Yes, these IT companies are mostly engaged in Software Development. Software companies in Cebu have grown and expanded to accommodate and serve different areas in IT, locally and globally. Most of these companies are located in Asiatown IT Park, fronting the Waterfront hotel. The establishment of the Asia Town IT Park under the Mactan Economic Zone likewise strengthened the IT sector in the province.


The Asiatown IT Park is a 24-hectare integrated mixed-use business park in Cebu City envisioned to attract locators in the information technology services. It was approved last April 6, 2000 by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority Board as an economic zone, and was granted Presidential Proclamation No. 12 last February 27, 2001 as an Information Technology Special Economic Zone.

Asiatown IT Park is a mere 1.5 kilometers away from Cebu Business Park, whose roads connect to major arteries that lead to the Mactan International Airport (20 minutes by car) and the Cebu International Port (10 minutes by car).

Its primary locators are Software developers in business, e-commerce, education and entertainment, Content Developers for the internet and multi-media, Design and Prototype production companies for computer hardware and accessories, IT-related Research and Development activities, Telecommunication firms, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Computer support services, and IT Business and Technology Incubation.

Some of the major IT locators in Asiatown IT Park are NEC Telecom Software Philippines Inc., Tsuneishi Technical Services Philippines Inc., DASH Engineering Philippines, Inc., Epson Software Engineering. Phils., Inc., and NCR.

Source:http://asiatownitpark.com

Company	Activity	Nationality
Lexmark Research & Development	R&D	American
DASH Engineering Philippines, Inc.	Eng'g Design (CAD)	Japanese
Tsuneishi Technical Services Phils., Inc.	Eng'g Design (CAD)	Japanese
BOOOM! Interactive	Graphics / Animation	Japanese
Innodata	Data Conversion / Content Dev't	American
United Publishing	Content Dev't	Japanese
Bigfoot	Web / Graphics / Content / Comm	American
N-Pax Corp.	Software Dev't	JV / Fil-Japanese
Alliance Software	Software Dev't	JV / Fil-Japanese
Farcite	Software Dev't / Web	Japanese
Epson Software Engineering. Phils., Inc.	Software Dev't	Japanese
NEC Telecom Software Philippines Inc.	Software Dev't	Japanese
AWS, Inc.	Software Dev't	Japanese
Xlibris	Data Conversion / Content Dev't	American
I Catch IT	BPO - Accounting	American
Secure DNA PI Inc.	Network Security	American
Accenture	Software Dev't	American
KINSE Systems Technology, Inc.	Software Dev't	Japanese

The Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology or CEDF-IT is a consortium of academe, industry, government and NGO's that seeks to increase the quantity and improve the quality of professionals in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and IT-Enabled Services Industry through proactive intervention in the HR development sector. It has six flagship programs: IT Teachers Academy, Professional Certification and Training Center, HR Survey and Monitoring, R&D Institutionalization Unit, Quality Assurance in IT Education, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Hub, and Cebu as a Global IT Education Hub. Currently, Cedf-IT has 51 members from the academe, 54 members from the industries, 9 members from the government sectors, and 8 members from NGOs. They conduct trainings and activities for their members as well as for non-members of the foundation. However, they normally charge fifteen percent (15%) more of the standard fees charged to members. Being a non-profit private organization, CEDF-IT is able to price its training way below the training industry standards.

Source:http://cedfit.org/


Cebu has been exerting much effort in promoting ITS/ITES (IT Services/ IT Enabled Services). In fact, there was an international conference and exhibition on ITS/ITES industry called Cebu ICT 2007 last June 26 to Jun 28, 2007 in Cebu. It was hosted by Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the support of various organizations such as Cebu City Government, Cebu Provincial Government, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Board of Investment (BOI), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT). The event's aim was to promote partnership between ITS/ITES companies in the Philippines and overseas.

During the event, Mr. Oscar Sanez, newly appointed CEO of Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P), said that they view Japan as a niche market rather than a key market. But of course, they also welcome any business opportunity with Japan. The reason for this is that Filipinos are good in the English language. They have more opportunities in outsourcing services for American and European markets. On the other hand, although there was no Japanese speaker or panelist during the event, Mr. Robert Cheng, president of Alliance Software, touched on Japanese market. He discussed about the success of their company in offshore software development, primarily focusing on Japanese market while most software companies in the Philippines focus on American and European market.

Although Japan's presence may be low in events like Cebu ICT 2007 and eServices Philippines 2007, there is still a quite number of Philippine-based companies enjoying success with their ITS delivery to Japanese market. For instance, just for the software development services, 25% of the Philippine's software service export went to Japan in 2005.

Source: JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization)