General Santos City shall host the biggest gathering of Information & Communications Technology stakeholders in Mindanao come October this year. This is for the conduct of the 4th Mindanao ICT Congress scheduled on October 27 – 28, which will be one of the highlights of the 2nd e-Business Week slated on October 24 – 29, 2005.

General Santos City is one of the locations in the country proclaimed as an I.T. hub by the government. This is in addition to current locations such as Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, Pangasinan, Camarines Sur, Leyte, Baguio City, Iloilo City, Cagayan de Oro City, Zamboanga City, and Davao City.

The aim of the 4th MICT Congress' is to make Mindanao in particular and the Philippines in general, become the "Knowledge Center in the Asia-Pacific" by 2010. Through the national information infrastructure government, businesses, libraries and homemakers will have to become Internet literate for them to carry out the demands in the workplace.

The Plenary Sessions will focus on e-enabling Mindanao for digital opportunities; BIMP-EAGA: potentials for ICT collaboration in Mindanao; developing Mindanao's ICT human resources; opportunities and challenges in the ICT outsourcing services; e-governance solutions that work; next generation technologies and their impact; and presentation on the 4th MICT Congress Output/Resolutions.

Gensan City government partnered with the Mindanao Business Council, Gensan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and DTI 12. Globe Telecom and Innove are the major corporate sponsors.

Trade  & Industry 12 Director Ibrahim K. Guiamadel said that all the activities during the e-Business Week are intended to keep the public abreast on the latest in ICT, train the local human resources to meet the basic requirements and qualify for jobs in the ICT field, generate employment opportunities for graduates, among others. These activities in the city shall further strengthen General Santos City’s claim as a competitive IT hub in the country.

The e-Business Week is organized by the Department of Trade and Industry 12 and the ICT Solutions Association of Region 12 (ISA12) in cooperation with other line agencies and the local government of General Santos City.

Among the activities are:

ICTex  (October 24-29 @ Atrium, Gaisano Mall, Gen. Santos City) , a display of an array of equipment and gadgets in ICT

Government-on-Line, (October 24-29 @ Atrium, Gaisano Mall, Gen. Santos City),  where government agencies whose services are on-line shall be gathered to provide their services to the public. Included here are NEDA, DLR, NSO, DTI, GSIS, TESDA, BIR, NFA.

Job Fiesta, (October 24-27 @ Atrium, Gaisano Mall, Gen. Santos City), Head hunters from the ICT world shall come to screen entrants for backroom operations, content development, animation, medical transcription and other core IT services. They will be recruiting workers from the fields of Information Technology, engineering, communications, business, natural sciences. (Please read related news.)

MT: Transcribing Your Way to the US, (October 26 @ Atrium, Gaisano Mall, Gen. Santos City), a forum that would help prepare those with background in medical courses to a work in a medical transcription firm, now a considered a lucrative job.

Academe Trainers’ Training (October 24-25 @ Atrium, Gaisano Mall, Gen. Santos City), training for mentors who are interested include in their course offerings Advanced English Communication preparing graduates for Contact (Call) Center Agents.

TechTalks (October 25-29 @  Mezanine Floor, Port Café, Gaisano Mall, Gen. Santos City), a series of short courses on the use and application of various soft ware in engineering and design, animation,  website services, network consulting and management, desktop publishing,. This is open to anyone in whatever fields they are in but are interested to improve their skills in the use of computers.

E-Competition (October 24-29 @ Atrium, Gaisano Mall, Gen. Santos City), an ICT-related or electronic-generated competition showcasing the skills and abilities of the contestants while selling their services to interested companies. Participants can join in categories such as SMS Content Craze (Content-Concept Development Competition); Animazing Talent (Animation Competition); Original Character Design Competition; Digital Graphic Design Competition; Digital Fine Art Competition; Web Design Competition; and Global Minds (ICT Quiz Bowl: Inter Mindanao Universities-Colleges).

Get the full details by visiting the website at http://www.sme12.ph

See you in General Santos City!