CEBU – Malacañang has proclaimed the 50-hectare Cebu Business Park into an IT Park as the Ayala-owned company expands its capacity to accommodate more BPO firms that have expressed interest to relocate in the number one emerging BPO destination in the country.

Francis O. Monera, president of Cebu Holdings Inc. which is 70 percent-owned by Ayala Land Inc., told reporters at the launch of the 19th Visayas Area Business Conference to be held on June 24-27 here coinciding with the Cebu Business Month celebration that the proclamation of the Business Park as an IT Park would facilitate the entry of more BPO firms in Cebu.

“We realized that a number of BPOs have expressed interest to locate in Cebu because Cebu is the number one destination for BPO firms. We have to take advantage of that by putting up facilities and improving our infrastructure,” Monera said.

With the proclamation, lot owners in the Cebu Business Park that are going to build IT buildings no longer have to go through the process of seeking an individual approval from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority for its IT building project, which is a tedious and long process as this would entail consent from local government unit.

“The first step is already done, they don’t have to apply singly as an IT building. All they have to do now is register with PEZA as IT building developer to be able to avail of government tax and fiscal incentives,” he said.

Without naming the prospective investors, Monera said that investors would love to expand here because the cost of putting up BPO centers in Cebu is cheaper given the lower cost of wages and cost of living.

“The whole Business Park also offers a better investment environment – it is conducive for work and play,” he added.

The Cebu Business Park, which development started in the early 1990s, is already 70 percent fully occupied while the remaining 30 percent still under various stages of development.

With its proclamation as an IT Park, the Cebu Business Park has become the second IT Park outside of Luzon, the first being the Asia Town IT Park, which is also owned by another Ayala company Cebu Property Ventures Development Corp.

According to Monera, they have stopped selling the remaining 7 to 9 hectare lots in Asia Town, which now hosts 71 percent of the all BPO locators in Cebu, because they have to ride with the upswing in real estate sector.

Instead, he said, the Asian I Office (AIO), a new unit of CPVDC, is now in charge of building BPO buildings for lease to new locators.

AIO has completed one building E-Bloc, which now houses the BPO operations of JP Morgan and NCR.

The plan is to build one BPO building a year.