First Cebu countryside BPO inaugurated
The BPO Center is an important step to realizing plans to establish the Dalaguete Information and Technology Park, a business park envisioned to attract BPO locators in the southern Cebu area
The Municipality of Dalaguete — known as the Vegetable Basket of Cebu — launched recently the first-ever Business Process Outsourcing in the municipality.
Dalaguete Mayor Ronald Allan Cesante said that the BPO Center was built by the municipal government in order to train and produce BPO agents for their planned partnership with the private sector willing to put up BPO offices in Dalaguete.
The municipality is 105 kilometers from Cebu City and will take three hours and 25 minutes of travel time.
“It was born during the pandemic. There were Dalaguetnons coming over from the city,” Cesante said.
“What we saw is a new industry or a new line of enterprise where the municipal government could open and work with the private sector to come in and make sure that the youth would also be able to get a sustainable job,” he added.
He added that the BPO Center is an important step to realizing plans to establish the Dalaguete Information and Technology Park, a business park envisioned to attract BPO locators in the southern Cebu area.
Cesante explained to Daily Tribune that the municipal government provides trainings to applicants to enhance their communication and other skills. To date, the program has already produced 40 fully trained agents equipped to handle specific processes.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, Second District Representative Edsel Galeos and Board Members Raymond Joseph Calderon and Dr. Stanley Caminero.
Meantime, Cebu Information Technology and Business Processing Management Organization, a federation of Cebu IT-BPM companies, has called on the “ruralization” of call centers.
CIB.O executive director Buddy Villasis disclosed that there are potential sites for BPOs to expand in the countryside such as the cities of Bogo and Danao in the north, but stressed that infrastructure connectivity like internet will need to be improved.