Silicon Gulf
Encyclopedia
Silicon Gulf is a nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....

 for Davao City
Davao City
The City of Davao is the largest city in the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. Its international airport and seaports are among the busiest cargo hubs in the Philippines....

 and extends to the Davao Region
Davao Region
Davao Region / Southern Mindanao, designated as Region XI, is one of the regions of the Philippines, located on the southeastern portion of Mindanao. Davao Region consists of four provinces, namely: Compostela Valley, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, and Davao del Sur. The region encloses the Davao...

, at Southern Mindanao, Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

. The nickname refers to the growing number of Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...

 and IT Enabled Services (or ITES) companies sprouting in the area. The name was adapted from Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...

, referring to the high tech
High tech
High tech is technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology currently available. It is often used in reference to micro-electronics, rather than other technologies. The adjective form is hyphenated: high-tech or high-technology...

 cluster located in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

 in northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...

.

Davao Region is one of the regions
Regions of the Philippines
In the Philippines, regions are administrative divisions that serve primarily to organize the provinces of the country for administrative convenience. Currently, the archipelagic republic of the Philippines is divided into 17 regions...

 of the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, located on the southeastern portion of Mindanao
Mindanao
Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...

. Davao Region consists of four provinces
Provinces of the Philippines
The Provinces of the Philippines are the primary political and administrative divisions of the Philippines. There are 80 provinces at present, further subdivided into component cities and municipalities. The National Capital Region, as well as independent cities, are autonomous from any provincial...

, namely: Compostela Valley
Compostela Valley
Compostela Valley is a province of the Philippines located in the Davao Region in Mindanao. The province, called Comval for short, used to be part of Davao del Norte until it was made independent in 1998. It is the third newest province of the Philippines, behind Dinagat Islands and Zamboanga...

, Davao, Davao del Sur
Davao del Sur
Davao del Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Davao Region in Mindanao. Its capital is Digos City. The province is bordered by Davao City to the north, and Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, South Cotabato, and Sarangani to the west. To the east lies the Davao Gulf...

, and Davao Oriental
Davao Oriental
Davao Oriental is a province of the Philippines located in the Davao Region in Mindanao. Its capital is Mati and borders Compostela Valley to the west, and Agusan del Sur and Surigao del Sur to the north. Davao Oriental is the easternmost province of the country with Pusan Point as the easternmost...

. The region encloses the Davao Gulf
Davao Gulf
Davao Gulf is a gulf found in Mindanao in the Philippines. It has an area of 308,000 hectares. Davao Gulf cuts into the island of Mindanao from Celebes Sea. It is surrounded by all four provinces in the Davao Region. The largest island in the gulf is Samal Island. Davao City, on the gulf's west...

 and its regional center is Davao City.

Silicon Gulf is part of the Philippine Cyber Corridor
Philippine Cyber Corridor
The Philippine Cyberservices Corridor is a plan that is being pursued by the government of the Philippines to create interconnected centers of technology-related services, that are spread out all over the country. Services include business process outsourcing, medical transcription, outsourcing of...

.

Origin

The Silicon Gulf Initiative was officially announced on October 6, 2006, during the ICT Davao, Inc. launch at the Royal Mandaya Hotel in Davao City. The initiative emphasized radical collaboration between government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

, academia
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...

 and industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...

 in harnessing technical talent and information-oriented manpower as the key driving force in transforming the city from an agricultural / industrial economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...

 to a knowledge-based one.

Its primary objective is to build Davao City's ICT capacity through developing talent in the areas of "technopreneurship", IT project management, and core technical skills.

Cyber Real-Estate

  • NCCC Mall IT Pavilion - Home of Western Wats
  • Luisa Avenue Square - Home of Sutherland Global Services, Inc.
  • Damosa IT Park - Home of Concentrix and other IT companies
  • Landco Corporate Center - Home of Callbox Inc., also hq of Qualiserv (both are contact center facilities), Mynd Tech Management Services and Ultro Sourcing Inc. (both are BPO services company)
  • ANC Corporate Center - Home of Cyber City Teleserv Center
  • Pryce Tower - Sitel Career Center
  • Tumble Tots Center - Home of JIB eAcademy and Solutions and the company’s own contact center: Six Eleven Global Solutions.
  • Udenna BPO Park - SureRecruit Training Center (contact center training facility)
  • Damosa Business Center - Built for software development outfits, telecoms providers, research & development firms.
  • Metro Lifestyle Complex - With a contact center facility at its 3rd and 4th floors

Damosa IT Park

The ICT park zone being developed by Damosa Land Incorporated is composed of 22,983 square meters (about 300,000 sq ft) of land located along J.P. Laurel Avenue which would accommodate two information technology buildings; data building; commercial and a utility building that would have an unlimited power supply.

The primary stage of development involves the establishment of the ICT building covering some 1,326 square meters (about 15,500 sq ft) of land along J.P. Laurel Avenue. Ricardo Floirendo, Damosa Land Inc. is a local counterpart of the Ayalas here in Davao. Senior vice-president of DLI, said the call center company Link2Support, which also operates in Cagayan de Oro City and Manila, has committed to operate in the building in November. He said the company would put a 200-seater center that would boost the outsourcing business here.

Based on their plans, the IT building would be installed with high-speed fiber-optic telecommunication backbone and high-speed international gateway facility or wide-area network. Floirendo said they would initially be investing P20-million for the first phase of the ICT zone.

Landco Corporate Center

Landco Corporate Centre, located along JP Laurel Avenue, Bajada, Davao City, is conceived and built to be the best business address in Davao City and the entire island of Mindanao. Among its state-of-the-art amenities and facilities is a Global Integrated Communication System (GICS) with structured cabling system for multi-media applications.

It also installed the first Building Management System (BMS) in Mindanao which monitors and controls the elevators, the fuel and water pumps, and the main entry. The building also features sophisticated fire safety and security systems, three high-speed elevators, a grand lobby and hallways graciously appointed with world-class furnishings and finish.

Davao City

Given its potentials to become a “center of excellence” in Information Communications and Technology (ICT), Davao City is declared as an IT HUB area in the Philippines by the National Telecommunications Office per memorandum # 05-05-200.

As a modern metropolis bustling with life, verve and color, situated in a typhoon-free zone with a land area of 2,440 km² touted as one of the world’s largest, recent study made by the Asian Institute of Management through a project called “Philippine Cities Competitiveness Program” revealed that the City is the Most Competitive City in the Philippines (Urban Category) with the lowest cost of Doing Business.

Moreover, using a scorecard developed by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), Davao City ranks high as an attractive ICT investment location in the country.

In the area of Workforce Potential, the Commission on Higher Education
Commission on Higher Education (Philippines)
The Commission on Higher Education of the Philippines, , abbreviated as CHED. The CHED is attached to the Office of the President for administrative purposes...

 (CHED) XI reported that as of January 2005 out of 76 colleges and universities in the region, Davao City has a total of 42, three (3) of which belonging to the Top 20 in the country namely: Ateneo de Davao University
Ateneo de Davao University
The Ateneo de Davao University is a private and research Catholic university administered by the Society of Jesus in Southern Mindanao in the Philippines. It was established in 1948...

, University of the Immaculate Conception
University of the Immaculate Conception
The University of the Immaculate Conception was founded in 1905 by the Religious of the Virgin Mary . It started as a parochial school, “St. Peter’s Parochial School” with only the primary and intermediate courses offered....

 and University of Mindanao
University of Mindanao
The ' is the largest private, non-sectarian university in Mindanao located in Davao City on the Southern Philippine island. Established in 1946, the University of Mindanao has ten branches spread over thirteen campuses in Southern Mindanao. It is currently an Autonomous Status per CEB Resolution...

.

About 14 colleges and universities in the region were also granted the PAASCU, PACUCOA, and AACUP accreditations, hence, assuring that quality graduates are produced each year in many higher education.

Moreover, a total of 15,731 graduates were recorded for the schoolyear 2004-2005 with the following top courses: Education (with 2,715 graduates), Commerce, (with 2,707 graduates) and Nursing (with 2,241 graduates).

In the area of telecommunications infrastructure, Davao City has an available high-speed Digital Subscribers Lines (DSL) that can support 24x7 operations. The presence of major telecommunications companies i.e., Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company
The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company commonly known as PLDT, is the largest telecommunications company in the Philippines. PLDT is also the largest company in the Philippines, ranked 1138th in the April 2009 update, and 1080th in the April 2010 update, of Forbes' Global 2000 list...

, BayanTel, Globe Telecom
Globe Telecom
Globe Telecom , commonly known as Globe, is a telecommunications company in the Philippines. Globe provides mobile, fixed line, and broadband Internet services.- History :In 1928, Congress passed Act No...

, Digitel
Digital Telecommunications Philippines
Digital Telecommunications Phils., Inc. , commonly known as Digitel, is the second-largest fixed-line and the third-largest mobile telecommunications company in the Philippines...

, Meridian Telekoms, Inc. and PT&T can provide such services from fiber-optic links, wireless broadband, to simple and triple redundancy.

In the area of real estate, Davao City has huge open spaces that can be developed into an IT Park or IT Building. There are five (5) major hotels and more than 10 business inns.

In the area of vendor support, large vendors in Manila and Cebu are now in Davao City to cater the requirements of local companies in terms of hardware and software namely: GlobalChips Technologies, Co; Trinet Multimedia Systems Corporation; Micro-D International, etc.

In the area of power infrastructure, Davao City has the most stable power supply and one the cheapest rates in the country. Its power utility company, the Davao Light and Power Company has a backup power supply of 44 MW at its Bajada Power Plant. In the last 5 years, there was no recorded incidence of massive power shortage and blackouts.

In the area of transportation, a total of 189,621 motor vehicles in the region were registered in the Land Transportation Office (LTO) XI in 2005 distributed as follows: motorcycles & tricycles - 109,142; Utility vehicles - 44,118; Taxi/Cars - 18,983; Trucks – 11,310; Sports Utility Vehicles – 4,045; Trailers – 1,265 and Buses – 758. Davao City and nearby provinces have more than 2,000 aircon/non-aircon taxi units equipped with 2-way radio system running 24 hours a day.

In terms of local incentives, Davao City is the first local government unit in Mindanao to provide incentives to investors in the city.

For Quality of Life, Davao City was adjudged as the most liveable city in the Philippines and included in the Top 20 in Asia.

Associations / Organizations

Silicon Gulf has a number of ICT organizations, and they all are under an umbrella organization, ICT Davao.

ICT Davao Incorporated, also known as ICT Davao and IDI, is the umbrella organization of all information and communication technology groups hosted by Davao City. Like many multi-stakeholder organizations, ICT Davao has evolved a history of its own. With the assistance of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the ICT Council of Davao was born in 2002 to champion the needs of the industry. It adopted its new name ICT Davao in 2006 and has revitalized its membership which now includes the ICT educational and technical training institutions, the sub-sector association of various IT-enabled and BPO services such as contact centers, transcription providers, FOSS users, IT software and hardware vendors, i-Café operators and inventors.
  • Association of Computer Businesses in Mindanao (ACBM)
  • Business Process Outsourcing Association of Davao, Inc. (BPO-Davao)
  • Corporate IT Association of Davao
  • Council of Deans in I.T. Education (CDITE-Region XI)
  • DabaweGNU
  • Davao Inventors Association
  • Davao Technical Expert for Computer Hardware & Software Support, Inc (TechSupport)
  • Internet Cafe Association of Davao, Inc. (ICAD)
  • Philippine Society of I.T Educators (PSITE-Region XI)
  • Transcription Alliance of Davao, Inc. (TADI)

Universities and Colleges

  • Holy Cross of Davao College
    Holy Cross of Davao College
    The Holy Cross of Davao College is a private Catholic college institution founded by the Religious of the Virgin Mary Sisters in 1951 and maintained by the Foreign Mission Society of Quebec in 1956...

  • San Pedro College
    San Pedro College
    San Pedro College is a nursing school in Mindanao located in the heart of Davao City, Philippines, founded in 1956 by the Dominican Sisters of the Trinity from Quebec, Canada...

  • Brokenshire College
  • Davao Doctors College
    Davao Doctors College
    Davao Doctors College is a nonsectarian academic institution located at Gen. Malvar St., Davao City. Founded in September 1975, Davao Doctors Collge was initially known as the Davao Doctors Hospital School of Nursing and was the brainchild of a group of medical doctors in response to the...

  • AMA Computer University
    AMA Computer University
    AMA Computer University , formerly AMA Computer College, was the first ICT University in Asia. The University serves as the flagship brand of the AMA Education System....

  • AMA Computer Learning Center (ACLC)
  • Ateneo de Davao University
    Ateneo de Davao University
    The Ateneo de Davao University is a private and research Catholic university administered by the Society of Jesus in Southern Mindanao in the Philippines. It was established in 1948...

  • University of Mindanao
    University of Mindanao
    The ' is the largest private, non-sectarian university in Mindanao located in Davao City on the Southern Philippine island. Established in 1946, the University of Mindanao has ten branches spread over thirteen campuses in Southern Mindanao. It is currently an Autonomous Status per CEB Resolution...

  • University of the Immaculate Conception
    University of the Immaculate Conception
    The University of the Immaculate Conception was founded in 1905 by the Religious of the Virgin Mary . It started as a parochial school, “St. Peter’s Parochial School” with only the primary and intermediate courses offered....

  • University of the Philippines - Mindanao
    University of the Philippines, Mindanao
    The University of the Philippines Mindanao is the sixth constituent university of the University of the Philippines System and is the only representative of the UP System in the Mindanao island, located at Mintal, Tugbok District, Davao City.The university was first named University of the...

  • University of Southeastern Philippines
    University of Southeastern Philippines
    -About USeP:The University of Southeastern Philippines is a regional state university created in 1978 through Batas Pambansa Bilang 12...


IT-Enabled Services and Training

  • Callbox Inc
  • Davao First Transcription Center Corporatin (DFTCC)
  • G-Com Ltd.
  • JIB E-Academy
  • Link2Support
  • MTC Academy
  • Nakayama Technology Corporation
  • Outsource IT to Philippines
  • PeopleSupport
  • TeamAssist
  • TryBPO Outsourcing Solutions
  • Global Connect eSolutions

Software Development and Website Design


IT Parks and Incubators

  • 3G/Brokenshire Davao IT Incubation Center
  • Damosa IT Park
  • NCCC ICT Pavilion
  • Webdad.NET

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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