IT INVESTMENTS HIT PHP5B IN FIRST TWO MONTHS by Veronica Silva BusinessWorld IT Matters March 6, 2001 The Board of Investments (BoI) approved more than five billion Philippine pesos (US$104.576 million at PhP47.812=$1) worth of investments for the first two months this year, with more than PhP1 billion approved last month, data released by BoI yesterday showed. The bulk of the investors are services providers, specifically Internet service providers (ISPs) and application service providers (ASPs). The four newly approved IT ventures are SourcePilipinas.com, an e-marketplace; Active Business Solutions, a software development company; Aneco Communication Corp., a customer contact center; and Yapster e-Learning, Inc., a knowledge-based support firm. The latest investments were granted pioneer status and are mostly Filipino-owned, except Aneco, which is 30% Chinese-owned. Under BoI rules, pioneering IT projects that get the BoI nod are entitled to more incentives, such as up to six years income tax holiday (ITH). The biggest investor among the four is SourcePilipinas.com, with an investment of more than PhP447.9 million. SourcePilipinas.com is a joint venture between the Yap family, which owns the Yapster e-Conglemerate, Inc., and Unifize, Inc., owned by Lucio Tan, Jr. The e-conglomerate is a holdings company of the dot-com ventures of the second-generation Yap family. Felipe Yap, chairman of the Philippine Stock Exchange, chairs it. Yapster e-Learning is the second dot-com venture in the conglomerate to get the BoI nod. Yapster e-Trade, Inc., an online stock trading, and back office support facility, was approved by the BoI last January. Yapster e-Learning will provide an integrated e-learning solution for training in IT and business skills courses. The e-conglomerate will invest some PhP117 million in the new company. Aneco will set up an international call center for a PhP316-million investment. The call center will cater to the United States and will employ 800 workers. Active Business Solutions is also investing PhP117 million in its software development venture. Its software solutions focus on e-commerce, and Internet and business applications. IT firms have recently been going to the BoI, seeking its approval to be able to avail of government incentives. Starting last year, IT services have been identified by the BoI as a priority investment area under the Investment Priorities Plan (IPP). HELP DESK BoI plans to set up an information technology (IT) help desk to help investors. This plan is mandated under Department Order No. 103, which formed the Department of Trade and Industry's (DTI) IT team last year. IT/ e-commerce is a priority investment area identified by the BoI last year under the Investment Priorities Plan (IPP). As such, IT and e-commerce investors are entitled to government incentives such as income tax holidays. With IT/e-commerce in the IPP, the BoI has come up with guidelines of how these investors can receive the incentives. The plan is to have the BoI help desk located at the One-Stop Action Center (OSAC), with back office support provided by DTI's Office of Social Concern (OSC). OSAC houses representatives from government agencies involved in investment facilitation. The help desk is designed to be a call center-type of operation that uses the Internet. DTI now seeks private sector participation in this project through free and voluntary services of an IT consultant, as well as provision or donation of online facilities and equipment. Under the help desk setup, investors can transact with the BoI and DTI through fax, mail, e-mail, and telephone or by simply walking in. In the meantime, DTI is also beefing up the promotion of IT and e-commerce as investment opportunity areas for the country. DTI's Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM) has scheduled an e-services exposition from June 28 to 30 in Manila. The exposition is part of the DTI-led IT and E-Commerce Council (ITECC) strategy to position the Philippines as the e-services hub of Asia. ITECC is a government-private sector policy advisory body on IT and e-commerce matters. ITECC has identified e-services as the niche where the country can excel in the global IT marketplace. The CITEM event is one of several investment promotion missions that the DTI has planned for the year. In the regular ITECC meeting last Thursday, DTI assistant secretary for IT and ITECC executive director Toby Melissa C. Monsod said this year's trade missions will focus on Europe. Last year, the focus was the United States, where former president Joseph Ejercito Estrada led an IT-focused delegation in the US West and East Coast.