[In photo: (left, front to back) IBPAP President Jack Madrid, DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual, DTI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo, DTI Undersecretary for Communications Kim B. Lokin; (right, front to back) BOI Director Lanie Dormiendo, BOI Executive Director Evariste Cagatan, SAP Head of Government Affairs Germany Dr. Caroline King, SAP Labs Network Chief Operating Officer Patrick Grofig, PTIC-Berlin Commercial Counsellor Nicanor Bautista]
Philippines Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo Pascual led discussions on July 3 with Systemanalyse Programmentwicklung (SAP) Head of Government Affairs Dr. Caroline King and SAP Labs Network Chief Operating Officer Patrick Grofig, on potential collaboration in the development of upskilling programs for the Philippine small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to access the digital economy.
The meeting was organized by the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in Berlin.
SAP is one of the world’s leading producers of enterprise management solutions, with posted revenues of EUR30.87 billion in 2022. Founded in 1972, the company was initially called System Analysis Program Development, later abbreviated to SAP. Since then, it has expanded from a small, five-person operation to a multinational group headquartered in Walldorf, Germany with more than 105,000 employees worldwide. In Manila, it has around 2,300 employees, largely providing support services to its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) corporate clients.
During the meeting, Secretary Pascual highlighted, software development in the country is one of the more established sub-sectors of the Philippine IT industry, drawing cost savings and a large entry-level talent pool.
He also mentioned there are more than 400 software companies operating in the Philippines. In total, there are about 200,000 IT and software personnel, of which about 85,000 work on projects geared for the export market.
Likewise, he specified the inclusion of software development, and research and development (R&D), in the list of activities eligible for generous incentives under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act.
Foreign companies currently engaged in software development, GIC (global in-house) services, and R&D activities in the Philippines include: Microsoft (IT services/ solutions), Dyson (UK, shared service center, manufacturing and R&D), Avaloq (CH, software development), Denso (JP, automotive software development) and Alibaba (cloud computing services/data center), among others.
