COTABATO CITY, Philippines – Officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) are expecting to generate at least 6,000 new job opportunities from a P1.5 billion telecommunications project approved last month by ARMM acting Gov. Ansaruddin Alonto Adiong.

Adiong and his technocrats said they were also eager of the “ARMM’s largest single project” to link up electronically the geographically scattered region with the rest of the world.

The ARMM chief executive awarded the certificate of registration to the East Asia (EA) Trilink Corporation, a Filipino-owned telecommunications firm, at formal rites last month to kick off the project implementation.

Lawyer Ishak Mastura, chairman of the ARMM’s Regional Board of Investment (RBoI), said the issuance of the registration certificate followed a series of exploratory meetings between his office and the management of the EA Trilink Corporation.

Mastura said the telecommunications project is the “single biggest investment” ever to get into the autonomous region replete with the viability of large-scale business venture in the region.

He said the project aims to set up 2,000 electronic centers or ‘tele-kiosks’ in 30 towns across the ARMM, with each kiosk requiring at least three operators in a fashion assuring 6,000 new jobs for the regional populace.

The company is also looking at installing submarine cable link to connect Southern Philippines to Sabah, Malaysia in the future as part of their vision to become a leading service provider of telecommunications facilities in the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA), Mastura said.

He said the giant project is expected not only to enhance business climate in the ARMM but also improve its social landscape with the infusion of information and communication technology even in some of the remotest communities in the region.

He said the EA Trilink venture is unparalleled in the region’s 21-year history and a testament to the growing confidence of the private sector on the operations and policies undertaken by the present ARMM administration.

He said the firm will utilize satellite uplink to connect the region as it has done in a similar project in Cambodia serving as a “proof of workable concept.”

EA Trilink president Alfredo Panizales said the project will be implemented in two phases.

The first is set to be initiated at the second quarter of this year while the second phase will be on the third quarter of 2012.

The company is hoping to jumpstart business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in ARMM with the introduction of the project and has already tapped the help of the technical people to train the required manpower.