The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) indicated investors in the IT-BPM industry feel the pain from their dealings with local government units in some regions, despite the enabling law to prevent red tape.

In a conversation with reporters during the signing of a memorandum of agreement with the Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) on Monday, Trade and Industry Secretary Cristina Roque said she knew about the problems of red tape being faced by some IT-BPM investors during a dialogue.

“They have some problems with the LGU, so I set them a meeting with Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla to discuss their issues. The President told us to work on this, and the result is good. We have to take care and protect this industry because they provide a lot of jobs for Filipinos, aside from being high-paying,” Roque said.

Last year, IBPAP reported that 2024 was a milestone year for their industry after reaping $38 billion in revenues and created 1.82 million jobs.

The group’s president, Jack Madrid, also revealed some members of the group are experiencing hassle when applying for permits outside Metro Manila despite the presence of the Republic Act 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business Act, which aims to entice entrepreneurs to open up their businesses in the Philippines by expediting business and non-business transactions including the issuances of permits and licenses and holding government officials accountable for graft and corruption, amending the Anti Red-Tape Act of 2007.

Due diligence

Roque told would-be business owners to exercise due diligence in choosing the place where their businesses would be established, as LGU’s protocols vary.

“I also told them that when they open (businesses), they have to do due diligence. They also need to check the thrust of the LGU. Some LGUs are pro-industrialization, but some are still pro-culture and heritage. So, for them, they would rather have their town as a tourist spot, not a highly industrial town, and vice versa,” she said.

Further, she urged business owners to have a good working relationship with the mayors to have a harmonious business environment.

“If they are bringing in restaurants, retail, then they are bringing in revenue to the town, so why would they make life harder for them? But they don’t have any relationship, so they don’t know each other, so there’s a problem,” according to Roque.

Happy with support

Meanwhile, IBPAP president Madrid said his team is very happy with the high level of support that the Roque has shown when she started as the head of the DTI.

He said he remains optimistic about the growth prospects of the industry as more and more IT-BPM investors want to come to the country.

“We just need to be serious about the reskilling, upskilling, and cross-skilling of our talents. We have demographics that say that we have 700,000 university graduates a year. We need them to be employable. But we have to make sure that these graduates have relevant skills for the new types of work in the future, as the work that we do keeps changing, not because of AI, but the nature of work. So, we must adapt,” he said.

“We need to encourage our students and job seekers to continue to compete because we are already at 1.82 million digital workers, and we want to cross 2 million in the next 12 to 18 months, exceeding our baseline. We will cross $40 billion by the end of the year,” Madrid emphasized.

This July, IBPAP will be announcing its recalibrated roadmap, as announced last year.

Based on the earlier launched Roadmap 2028, the industry targets to end 2028 with 2.5 million full-time workers and $59 billion in revenues.