20 high-tech firms avail of incentives under BOI By Philippine Daily Inquirer, Infotech June 21, 2001 TWENTY information technology (IT) companies have applied for incentives available through the Investment Priorities Plan (IPP) of the Board of Investments of the Department of Trade Industry. The IPP embodies the basic development thrust of government for sustained economic growth. Under the revised IPP for 2001, the current administration has decided to retain incentive packages previously extended to IT-related projects. Such incentives include fiscal perks and income tax holidays of up to 6 years. Beginning January to May 2001, the total cost of projects approved is around P6.705 billion, document showed. These companies include: Meridian Telekoms Inc, Yapster e-Trade, Vinta Systems Inc., Philenter.com Inc., Adroit Innovations Phils Inc., Ayalaport Makati Inc., Vantage Information Services Inc, Philweb.com Inc, Smartweb Philippines Inc, Aneco Comm Corp, SourcePilipinas.com, Yapster e-Learning Inc., Active Business Solutions, Yapster e-Travel Inc, Transnational e-business Solutions Inc, Duon Corp, Innodata XML Content Factory Inc, Global Implementation Services Inc, Smart Communication Inc, and Contact World Inc. Eleven out of the 20 companies that have applied are Filipino companies. The rest are partnerships between Filipino and foreign entities. Ayalaport and Philweb.com appear to be the biggest players based on the projected cost of their projects. Ayalaport is an Internet data center facility owned partly by the Ayala Group of Companies (62 percent). The estimated project cost is around P1.069 billion. The company expects P3.422 million in revenues in five years. Philweb.com, which is 94.6 percent Filipino-owned, is an Internet company offering IT services such as web development and hosting, e-padala, and online enrollment. Based on BOI figures, the company is investing a total of P 2.268 billion, and expects around P10.9 million in revenues in five years. Meanwhile, the two foreign companies are Innodata and Adroit. According to the Philippine Business Report of DTI, Bermuda-based Innodata has a $2.8-million project (P143 million) that would convert information data using extensible markup language format in a plant in Mandaue City, Cebu. The project would generate around $37.3 million or P1.9 billion in revenues over the next five years. Adroit is a Singaporean company that has invested P55.690 million for the development of application software and other IT-related solutions for Singaporean, Malaysian, and Hong Kong customers. The company projects revenues of $10.397 million over five years. It currently employs 134 people.