A new IT park is set to rise in Tagbilaran City, Bohol early next year. Construction of the first building in the Tagbilaran Uptown IT Hub has already started and will be completed in early 2019, according to the developer Tagbilaran Uptown Realty Corporation.

Al Uy, president of Tagbilaran Uptown Realty Corporation, said that the structure is being built on a 1.3-hectare lot across the Island City Mall and the Central Public Market. The company has tapped Pampanga-based Segnor Construction and Development Corporation as the project contractor.

“The construction is ongoing. The excavation will be completed within the month, then we will scan the area and then the civil works will commence, hopefully on April,” Uy said in vernacular.

According to Uy, the structure is expected to be complete 10 to 12 months after the start of the civil works. The building will house business process outsourcing (BPO) firms and support service establishments such as restaurants, coffee shops and banks.

Uy said that the entire IT hub can accommodate up to 1,000 seats for BPO companies that have three work shifts per day.

“If BPO companies will come in and they take 1,000 seats, then let’s just say that there will be three shifts of 8 hours each. All in all, there will be 3,000 [jobs],” he added.

The Tagbilaran Uptown IT Hub is also expected to indirectly generate additional jobs just like other IT parks in the country.

“The multiplier effect of a BPO is said to be four times because every call canter agent will generate an additional job, such as drivers and food vendors,” Uy explained.

Local telecommunication giants Globe and PLDT have already agreed to provide the IT park with faster Internet connection through fiber optics.

Uy admitted that land development ventures involving the BPO industry are risky. He said that the project is needed to help Bohol keep up with other provinces which have benefited greatly from the multibillion-peso BPO industry. The company is already negotiating with BPO companies in Manila that are interested in setting up business in Bohol.

“It’s a risk. What if nobody will occupy the establishment? But if I don’t put up the building, Tagbilaran City and Bohol will be left behind,” said Uy. “So the implication is great. The landscape in Tagbilaran will change in terms of jobs.”

Source: Bohol Chronicle