Best Information Technology Parks in the Philippines

Copyright © 2010 by Chester B. Cabalza. All Rights Reserved.

The Philippines is now a hot player and emerging powerhouse in terms of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) around the globe. The country is currently ranked as the "number one BPO destination in the world," and considered as the “texting” or SMS capital worldwide. It is also the "social networking" capital around the globe. One of the most preferred locators for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Before the facebook revolution in Arab and African countries, the Philippinies revolutionized "people power" by using the opportunities of technology using the SMS, blogs and internet during the EDSA II Revolution. The Philippines was cited by Global New Economy Index of the Meta Group in 2002 for its “excellent availability” of skilled IT workers with compliment for the Filipinos’ technical and business skills, such as in mainframes, minicomputers, and microcomputers, and for their technical and business skills in ICT projects. To many nationalities around the world, Pinoys are considered one of the best English speakers in Asia. And now “land lords” to all firms and foreign investments related to IT-businesses in the country.

It is said that technology hubs situated around the globe has various tags attached to it. Some call it Techno Parks, Cyber Parks, or less Science Parks. However, by description, IT Parks, which I fondly call Cyberparks, foster new business development and technological innovation by leveraging synergies within the cluster environment. Its legal definition, penned by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), is that IT Parks are areas developed into a complex that is capable of providing infrastructures and support facilities that are needed by the different IT-based industries.

According to the research paper by Batolata, Min Jeong Lao, et. al., they argue that IT Parks are capable of creating international economic relationships with other countries through foreign investments and outsourcing processes. It provides infrastructure and services for business, particularly in the ICT sectors. It also enables knowledge-transfer not only in the aspect of IT and management but also in cultural diversity.

The Philippines is a newly industrialized emerging economy, however, it’s still considered a ‘developing’ country. Hence, cyberzones here, previously under the Export Processing Zone Authority (EPZA), are solely dependent on service sectors, rather than manufacturing and actual technological developments, which has been the turf of mature IT powerhouses in the world.

Cyberparks experience sweet successes in the Philippines primarily because investors in technohubs enjoy substantial benefits offered by the government such as income tax holidays, tax incentives for certain BPO buildings, granting of permanent resident status for foreign investors, and for those who hold ITH option could actually wave them to accept the immediate availment of 5% gross tax income tax incentive. In gist, the Philippines boosts its cost effectiveness or low labor costs, with skilled English speakers who are akin to western cultures. These serve as best reasons why foreigners invest in our IT-related market, as articulated by some researchers.

However, exceptions on cyberparks where ICT are booming vast IT Parks would be PEZA buildings in urban cities such as Makati, Ortigas, Manila, and Fort Bonifacio. Here, tax incentives are made available by the Philippine Board of Investments for certain skyscrapers standing within prime Business Central Districts (BCDs).

Without much ado, below is the list of the Top Techno Parks in the Philippines, ranked by the author in the following order:


1. McKinley Hills Cyberpark (Taguig City) – this 14-hectare posh property and emerging ultra-modern technohub built by Megaworld Corporation inside the extensive 50-hectare mixed-use area of McKinley Hill firmly stands at the lucrative Global City in Fort Bonifacio. The newly-inaugurated ICT Park is fast-attracting top BPO offices and multinational companies (MNCs) because office edifices here are designed conscientiously to fit locators’ specific needs. In a Philstar article, it has reported that investors are pleased at the big floor spaces and convenient dorm residence provided for employees. Likewise, those from older business districts have transferred to McKinley Hill Cyberpark to include BPO firms such as Thomson Reuters, Accenture, CAISTA, et. al. Companies like Lawson and Erricson has also moved in to the new block, including consumer goods companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, Del Monte Fresh, and other multinationals, including Transcosmos, Ingram Micro, Factset, and more.

2. Eastwood City Cyberpark (Quezon City) – the pioneer IT Park in the Philippines is still not threatened by mushrooming cyberparks in the metropolis. It still enjoys a continued growth propelled by outsourcing and offshoring (O&O) sectors. In the study wrote by Batolata, Min Jeong Lao, et. al., they deem that Eastwood City Cyberpark has become a success because of several components: its strength on infrastructures, telecommunication, power, water and sewage system. In my observation, Eastwood has become a trendsetter in live-work-play community within a greater community. Its rhythm is alive and kicking, hosting MNC and BPO offices, while burgeoning skyscrapers flunk within its compound, offering world class entertainment, restaurants, shops, malls, world class cinemas, celebrated Walk of Fame for Philippine celebrities, and luxurious commercial and residential properties.

3. UP-Ayalaland TechnoHub (Quezon City) – the University of the Philippines’ answer to Stanford University’s Silicon Valley or Cambridge University’s MIT’s Route 28. It’s a fact that world-class universities should foster their own Science & technology (S&T) parks, that’s adjacent to their campuses, to provide a venue for industry-academe collaboration in Research and Development (R&D) and to encourage students as well as professors for significant technological innovations. This laboratory techno hub should be instrumental for the country’s national university to be at par with leading research universities around the world and pursue R&D and other technology-oriented programs to produce IT programmers and not the usual service-oriented call center agents.

4. Asiatown Information Technology Park (Cebu City) – the queen city of the south is now ready to take off and be part of the playing field in ICT revolution. This is paralleled to the fulfillment of the current administration’s cyber corridor projects in the Visayas. The ICT milestone in Cebu sits within a 24-hectare mixed use business park, envisioned to attract locators in the information technology services. Asiatown IT Park began in 2001 and opened its doors in 2002 where lucrative BPO offices and other conglomerates were established. According to the report of Palaubsanon, this hugely successful IT Park in Cebu was formerly the Lahug airport but was transformed into the flagship project of Cebu Property Ventures and Development Corporation as the first IT Park accredited by the PEZA in the Visayas and Mindanao. It hosts a total of 44 IT, IT-enabled and BPOs with direct employment of 13,500 employees and an estimated 5,000 workforce for its support services.

5. South Forbes Cyberpark (Santa Rosa City) – the rapid development in the suburbs is coupled with the creation of cyberparks to match with Santa Rosa City’s new status symbol. It’s now hailed as one of the richest cities in Southern Tagalog. The hubs of multinational manufacturing giants like Coca-Cola and Toyota. It’s the home and new Eden for the assembly of world-renowned automakers such as the Ford, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, and Isuzu, taking the shoes of Thailand and Detroit, USA. Based from Philstar’s report, the flourishing exclusive village has its very own Cyberpark that will feature world-class BTS buildings suited for BPOs and contact centers that will enable residents and their adult children to build careers within the city confines.

6. Northgate Cyberzone (Muntinlupa City) – Alabang’s answer to the burgeoning BPO opportunities. In its website, this high-end property covers 18.7-hectares with Cyberzone area located within Filinvest Corporate City. It’s a PEZA registered IT zone which is designed, mastered-planned, and built around the needs of technology-based companies engaged in software design and multimedia, call centers, e-commerce, banking and financial services, as well as other IT support businesses. It provides office buildings and spaces for lease and built-to-suit (BTS) packages. Under the BTS arrangement, companies can custom-build according to their specifications and operational requirements in an expedient and cost-effective manner.

7. Robinsons Cybergate Center (Mandaluyong City) – a mixed-use cyberhub which is placed at the heart of the sprawling metropolis in the tiger city of Mandaluyong and developed by Robinsons Land. It houses three cybergate towers and other new condominiums. The burgeoning complex is found in corner Pioneer Road, at the mid-artery of the longest road in EDSA. It’s now home to several BPO offices such as the well-known Accenture contact services.

8. Bigfoot Information Technology Park (Lapu-Lapu City) – Filipino animators are known worldwide, some of whom has collaborated with prominent animation studios in Hollywood. Hence, the Philippines is fast gaining recognition as a cost-efficient location for backroom operations and other I.T.-enabled services such as animation, transcription and software development. It’s indeed proper that an offshore studio is placed at the first class and highly-urbanized city of Lapu-Lapu in Mactan Island to host Bigfoot Entertainment, a parent company of Bigfoot Productions, Bigfoot Production Services, the International Academy of Film and Television (IAFT), and Bigfoot Partners that provides facilities, services and training to international filmmakers. This studio is important since the country today has a growing number of young and award-winning independent film-makers who achieve great accolades in international and prestigious film festivals around the world.

9. Subic Science Park (SMBA) – the Presidential Commission for the Central Luzon Growth Corridor (PCCLGC) deems that this special ecozone situated at the former US Naval base, now called the SBMA, is an excellent site for biotech and science parks since there are available skilled and easily trained workers in the area. Many Taiwanese and Korean investors are bullish enough of the opportunities available at the reserved 16 hectares of beautiful investment land. More so, current study shows that SBMA’s exports had averaged a billion dollars since 1997. Cognizant to the grand opening of its Science Park, PLDT has teamed up with SBMA, to put Subic at the frontlines of the country's ICT sector which includes new investments worth more than P40-million, consisting of fiber optics cable that connects Subic Bay to Manila and the entire Luzon grid, and the P20-million Innovation Laboratory (Innolab) of Subictel. Lastly, Subic Bay's ICT infrastructures will cater to BPO operations, retail and manufacturing businesses, and even the hotel industry, that will give add-on to the ballooning investments in this prime ecozone.

10. Ayala, Damosa, Robinsons IT Parks (Davao City) – the largest city and “crown jewel” in Mindanao opens its investment horizons to ICT opportunities, playing hardly its card as the third most significant urban center in the country. While maintaining its competitiveness, three top investors are developing its ICT Parks in Davao to build BPO offices and venture into the new challenges of techno-entrepreneurship. The Ayala Land and Anflocor made a venture to build Abreeza, a P5 billion three-storey ultra-modern designed mall, two BPO offices, a hotel, and residential and commercial buildings. While Damosa Land Incorporated, has 23 hectares of prime lots located along J.P. Laurel Avenue which would accommodate two IT buildings, data building, commercial and a utility building, inspired after Cagayan de Oro City built its first ICT Park in Mindanao. Lastly, Robinsons Davao’s cutting-edge ICT investments is leveling off the playing field by putting up a two level shopping mall and building IT or BPO facilities.