MANILA, 28 May — ‘Business Show 2001 Tokyo,’ undoubtedly Asia’s biggest trade show on information technology (IT) and office products, is one exhibit the Philippines cannot afford to miss. The country obviously does not have advanced technology to offer to businessmen who came from all over the world to look for business opportunities in the 53rd staging of this event. Neither does it have advanced hardware products, such as those showcased by global companies.

However, as the modest Philippine booth aptly showed, the country can offer the brains that could make IT services fly. It has quality engineers, technicians and software people. Every year, about 30,000 new engineers and technicians enter the country’s labor force. In short, the Philippines offers quality human capital for IT players who may want to establish a global base in the country to strengthen their competitiveness. In deciding to participate in the four-day show held at the Tokyo Big Sight International Convention Center, the Philippine government was able to convey not only to Japanese prospects but also to the world that the country has created an environment that encourages the growth of the IT industry. Investments in this sector, in fact, are given incentives that include income tax holiday. Under the theme ‘At the Dawn of the 21st Century, IT Creates New Business and Lifestyle,’ this year’s show attractead 600 exhibitors from various fields, including business-solution services, mobile communications, business software and digital home appliance manufacturers. Of this number, 125 organizations and governments took part in the JETRO Overseas Investment Fair, which was held as part of the business show. ‘The business show started in 1949 to promote the mechanization of offices. Now, it is widely seen as a symbolic event for IT development in Japan,’ said Hiromitsu Aoyama, chairman of the Nippon Omni-Management Association, which organized the event together with the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The exhibit site was divided into three areas with their respective themes: IT World, Office World, and Event World. Under the IT World are four exhibition zones: Business Solution Zone, Mobile and Network Zone, Software and Information Service Zone, and Supply and Parts Zone. Among the mobile telecommunications products showcased, devices that can be worn and personal digital assistants (PDAs) attracted the most number of visitors. Software products that attracted big crowds, on the other hand, include the latest in voice-recognition systems and XML database engines. Journalists attending the show are predicting that a few years from now they don’t have to type their stories on a computer keyboard. They would just dictate their stories, and a computer with voice recognition software would do grammar and spelling check before sending their stories to their respective publications. Businessmen and manufacturers were one in saying that Asia could be the strongest growth region for the IT industry in the near term. They said most makers have been experiencing negative growth in the US, although Japan and Europe are still giving good returns for their investments. ‘An anemic US economy would adversely affect the growth of the IT industry.

But we are hoping that Asia could spur the sector’s growth in the next few years,’ a Japanese maker said. He added that in Japan, whose economy has been registering a flat growth rate for the last 10 years, most businesses are investing in IT hardware and software. ‘This is the reason we are still bullish,’ he said.

Businessmen in Asia have an expression that says, ‘When the US sneezes, Asian countries get the cold.’ There seems to be a grain of truth to this, as far as some Asian economies are concerned. For example, Taiwan, the biggest supplier of computer and related products to the US, has revised its growth forecast downward this year because of decreasing orders from the US. Singapore, a major US trade partner in the region, is also seeing its economy contract. The same story goes for the Philippines and other countries in the region. However, the government hopes to ride on the growth of IT to revive the economy.