By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — The provincial government entered into agreements aimed at strengthening the Negros First CyberCentre operations and generating jobs.
Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. signed with Panasiatic Solutions a memorandum of agreement stipulating that the call center shall subsidize the training of its possible employees at the Negros Occidental Language and Information Technology Center (NOLITC).
Signing on behalf of Panasiatic Solutions was general manager Siony Hijara, who said most of their employees are products of NOLITC. Hijara said the subsidy will be provided to qualified students.
She said Panasiatic Solutions, which will soon open as new facility beside the city hall, needs 4,000 more employees.
Call center training at NOLITC costs P5,000 per trainee, said Ma. Cristina Orbecido, the center’s officer-in-charge. The scheme will also redound to “additional revenues for NOLITC,” she said.
Marañon also signed an agreement with the University of the Philippines-Cebu, which was represented by Dean Liza Corro.
UP-Cebu manages the Department of Science and Technology–UP-Cebu Technology Business Incubator for Information Technology, which is tasked to create jobs, develop entrepreneurs, nurture technology-based start-ups and establish an information technology (IT) hub, by increasing the pool of qualified IT personnel.
The agreement provides that the provincial government and UP-Cebu shall establish a joint project at the CyberCentre, where the latter will conceptualize, develop and promote training courses/programs on how to start a technology business incubator.
About 600–1,000 square meters at the CyberCentre have been set aside for IT start-ups, said Councilor Jocelle Batapa–Sigue, executive director of Bacolod-Negros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology.
Corro, for her part, said she saw “great potential” in the CyberCentre./PN
