The Philippine island of Mindanao has potential to be a major center of information technology in the immediate future, according to industry leaders.

This was the consensus expressed by the participants of the Computer Manufacturers, Dealers, Distributors Association of the Philippines (COMDDAP) in line with COMDDAP Davao '99 which opened yesterday at the Apo View Hotel in Davao City.

Established in 1986, COMDDAP is comprised of 60 dealers and distributors who are also actively involved in promoting and educating the public on the benefits of IT in their business applications.

Fisher Chua, president of COMDDAP, stressed that COMDDAP Davao '99 will help in spreading the gospel of IT throughout Mindanao. With its partners, he said COMDDAP will also help facilitate the continuous flow of IT goods, services and capital into the country. "We are optimistic COMDDAP Davao '99 will continue to convince Mindanaoans that IT is the key tool to progress and development in the new millennium," he said.

Jorge Buenaventura, chairperson of COMDDAP Davao '99 organizing committee, said this year's exhibit is one of COMDDAP's strategies to boost the use of IT in Mindanao. In addition, he said COMDDAP is also expanding its regional alliances to ensure all Filipinos can have exposure to the leading-edge technologies in IT.

"Our regional expansion is being carried out with the sense of adventure tempered by well calibrated optimism," continued Buenaventura, "We have such high hopes for Mindanao, a relatively young market but one that truly offers huge underlying potential the likes of which our industry has not seen for a long time."

Alexander Dee, vice president for operations of Axis Global Technologies, Inc., said Mindanao has a lot of room to be a huge IT user in the near future. He pointed out many industries still use old business systems that are not relevant in a competitive environment. "By moving into IT, these business organizations can increase productivity and efficiency which would enable them to compete in the global market," he said.

Leeyan Tan of Astech Pengson Distributors, Inc., said it will not take long before Mindanao emerges as a heavy IT center in the country. He pointed out that IT will be a vital tool in harnessing the potential of Mindanao towards economic growth. As a distributor of IT products, Tan said his company has a big obligation to push the use of IT in the region to accelerate its growth.

Mosaic Internet Davao's corporate account executive, Rosalie Taga-an said the increasing usage of IT is an indication that people in Mindanao now realize the importance of IT in boosting the competitiveness of their businesses. "IT usage is growing fast as most industries are acquiring computerized tools to speed up their transaction processing capability," she said.

"Companies are not just acquiring computers but also the means for those computers to communicate and download the wealth of information available on the Internet," she continued.

Taga-an said MosCom and ComNet have opened a branch office in Davao to provide service and support to its clients in the region. MosCom Internet has several points of presence (POPs) in key towns and cities to enable more people to gain access to the Internet.

MosCom is the only Internet service provider to provide a domestic E1 backbone in the province that can provide multimedia services such as Voice-over-Internet (VoIP) and video-conference to clients who need to exchange information between Manila, Cebu and Davao in real time at inexpensive rates.