Talk of a perfect storm, and what may inevitably come to mind would be images of the movie of the same title where two big storms came together and wrought a lot of destruction.
Last week, the head of the country’s Information Communications Technology initiatives came to talk to professionals in the ICT sector during the Negros Oriental ICT Expo, and said the conditions were right for the Philippines to be in a “perfect storm”.
No, he was not referring to the movie. By “perfect storm”, USEC Alejandro Melchor III was referring to the ripening conditions in the world which will propel the Philippines to become more progressive through ICT.
The Philippines and India now occupy the top spots in the ICT world for producing the best quality at the lowest cost. He said this is attracting a lot of ICT investors who are coming in droves to see the business potentials in store for them.
Negros Oriental benefits tremendously from the ICT BPO industry. Every month, easily P50 million is poured into the Province in terms of salaries for the BPO workers.
This money is spent on restaurants, malls, motorcycles, cars, houses, and what-have-you. Small wonder why businessmen say the Dumaguete economy is growing at a rate of 30 percent — way, way faster than the national average of 6.5 percent during the first quarter of 2012. (And come to think of it, a 6.5 percent growth rate is huge).
We don’t have to be in the ICT business to benefit from the windfall that is being promised by the technology sector. Look around you, and you can see the many motorcycles and cars marked “For Registration”, the many houses being built, the many restaurants, gas stations, banks, massage parlors mushrooming, and many other luxury items people spend their hard-earned money on.
To ensure our readiness for this perfect storm, we need to have fewer brownouts by removing causes of possible power interruptions, like rotten electric posts and overhanging branches.
We need to develop our road network so people will find it easier to go to work even if they may be living a few kilometers away.
And we also need to minimize floods by ensuring that our drainage systems are unclogged.
Yes, the perfect storm is coming. Are we ready?
