MANILA - The country’s business process outsourcing sector is expected to receive a big boost after President Arroyo urged Congress on Monday to pass a law that will create the Department of Information and Communications Technology.

In her 9th State of the Nation Address, Mrs. Arroyo cited the role of the BPO and tourism sectors as engines of growth in the country.

She noted that while electronics and other manufactured exports rise and fall in accordance with the state of the world economy, the BPO sector has remained resilient and continues to grow.

“With earnings of $6 billion and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our competiveness and productivity. Let us have a Department of ICT,” the President said in her SONA.

The Philippines’ BPO sector is projected to earn $13 billion in revenues by next year, capturing 10 percent of the global IT-BPO market, according to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP).

Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III, chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications, has long batted for the creation of a DICT since many nations are slowly vying for a piece of the global outsourcing and offshoring market.

“Everyone wants a piece of the business so there’s a lot of competition brewing. All of these guys have full-fledged departments. Without that, it might be just a matter of time before we start slipping in terms of our competitiveness,” he said in a previous interview with abs-cbnNEWS.com.

“We really need a department that will handle the offshoring sector as well as other legislation such as the cybercrime bill and the data privacy bill.”

To be sure, the government has always seen a need for focused leadership in the implementation of ICT policy in the country. In the year 2000, President Joseph Estrada formed the Information Technology and E-Commerce Council, which merged the powers and functions of the National Information Technology Council and the Electronic Commerce Promotion Council. Four years later, President Gloria Arroyo would abolish ITECC and create the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), which Chua now heads.

Under Executive Order 269, which created CICT, the Commission would not just be advisory in nature but will have a more active role in implementing the various ICT-related plans and policies of government. The Commission also handles government initiatives to development more IT proficient workers in the country, improvement of government IT services and bringing more Filipinos closer to technology.

EO 269 clearly notes that the CICT was formed to handle ICT policy while waiting for Congress to create a Department of Information and Communications Technology that would more effectively coordinate and implement national ICT programs.

Under the proposed DICT bill, all government communications agencies under the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC)  -- including TELOF, National Telecommunications Commission and National Computer Center – would be transferred to the newly formed department of ICT. The existing DOTC would then be renamed the Department of Transportation.

Last January, President Arroyo issued Executive Order No. 648, which effectively moves the NTC from DOTC to the CICT.