Compaq to invest $13.5M in Philippines

Compaq announced plans to invest about P600 million (US$13.5 million) in projects in the Philippines this year.

MANILA, 17 July 2000 (Asia Pulse) - The computer firm has chosen the country as its center of operation for the Asia-Pacific region.

Saroj Suraweera, vice president and general manager of the enterprise Solutions and Services Group of Compaq for the Asia Pacific, said some of these investments will go to the establishment of a company center.

"I call it a rapid deployment company center. This is driven by our aim, of building an infrastructure to deploy and test new applications in telecommunications like business systems, operating systems and intelligent systems," Suraweera said.

He added, "What we're trying to do is to emulate a telecom company. What should a telecom firm be at this time of rapid development in the industry? We want to answer that in this center".

In addition, Compaq is also planning to locate part of its "e-Business factory" in the Philippines to create Filipino "e-business architects".

He said 25 Filipino employees of the company will be trained to become solution architects, adding, "We will be needing them to plan and design opportunities for Compaq in the Philippine market as well as other markets in the Asia-Pacific region."

"Filipinos are highly IT literate and very imaginative. They're also very proficient in the English language. These are just some of the qualities that set the Philippines apart (from other countries in the region)," he said.

Compaq will also be building Internet data centers (IDCs) for its business clients in the country as part of its overall solutions strategy for local companies.

"We will build the IDC's for them to handle their Internet data traffic. They also have the option of selling these IDCs to other companies," he said.

Compaq has tapped Intenet firm PhilWeb.Com. Inc. assists partner in setting up an IDC in the country. The center will host facilities and services for various enterprises doing business in the Internet.

Under the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by the two companies, Compaq has committed to offer solutions to the IDC which will be interconnected to the computer firm's other centers located in Singapore, Sydney, Seoul, and Bangalore.

PhilWeb will be incharge of providing broadband connectivity between customers and the IDC.

The revenue generated from the construction of IDCs for clients comprised about eight percent of Compaq's total revenue last year. For 2000, the company expects revenue from its IDC-related operations to jump to 30 percent.

"We have set an investment of $15 million in the country, of which $5 million will come solely from Compaq. The $15 million includes the investments of our partners," Suraweera said.

Compaq is the second-largest computer firm in the world and the largest global supplier of computer systems. The company has a market capitalization of over $50 billion.

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