Mr. Bonifacio Belen This is Me

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1. 1. www.sunstar.com.ph

   www.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/ - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/20/2008   Last Visited: 5/20/2008

   Cedf-it executive director Bonifacio Belen said this development was a result of a study tour and mission he attended in Korea last month.
   
   "You will be surprised at the number of scholarship grants available in Korea," he told Sun.Star Cebu in a phone interview yesterday.
   
   He added that although there are many scholarship grants, they remain untapped by Filipinos.
   ...
   While India and China topped the number of IT professionals with graduate degrees, Belen said Cebu may have less than 10.This low figure, he said, is the reason why IT graduates in the country remain labor sub-contractors and not inventors.
   
   He added that the country's neighbors, like Singapore and South Korea, have worked hard to provide for the key ingredients necessary to deepen the quality of ICT practitioners in their countries.
   
   "We are very good in the services industry.But when it comes to new technology or new products, we are not very focused on them," he said.
   
   Joining summit
   
   A delegation from Kwangwoon University, including the university's president, and Haansoft Corp. are coming to attend the open source summit, said Belen.
   
   Aside from Belen, the study tour and mission was also participated in by engineer Jose Bigornia, president and chief executive officer of the Central Visayas Information Sharing Network, Roberto Jesus Suson, president and chief executive officer of Next Ix Inc., Angel Natividad, president of STI College in Zamboanga, Myrna Natividad, STI College-Zamboanga chief operating officer, and Angela Monette Natividad, finance manager for STI College-Zamboanga. (DME)

2. 2. Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology

   www.cedfit.org/news_content.ph - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/1/2008   Last Visited: 3/16/2008

   The city has established a favorable track record in IT-enabled services, such as call centers, medical transcription and business process outsourcing, and can now turn to developing IT services, which will yield higher value, said Bonifacio Belen, managing director of Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology.
   
   "There are about 17,000 workers in IT-enabled services in Cebu City," Belen said.

3. 3. www.cedfit.org

   www.cedfit.org/news_content.ph - [Cached]

   Published on: 1/1/2008   Last Visited: 3/16/2008

   The tour also aims to make the province an innovation island by emulating the examples of Silicon Valley, said Bonifacio Belen, chairperson of Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (Cedf-it).
   
   Belen said Korea is one of the countries in Asia that has successfully copied the Silicon Valley model making it one of the world's ICT hubs.
   
   "Korea has many universities with topnotch IT people.They have also invested much in network infrastructure such as Internet and cables necessary in development," he said.
   
   The study tour, which is already in its fourth year, is scheduled on April 21 to 24 in Seoul, South Korea.
   
   Around 16 people from both academe and industry sectors have signed up for the tour, he said.
   
   "The tour is an opportunity for the academe to know what interventions have been carried out to cope with the demand (of IT workers).Deans (of universities) will understand the right courses to offer and syllabi to prepare," Belen said.
   
   He said the tour is also a chance for industry practitioners to sell Cebu as an investment location with Cebu ranking 4th among 15 emerging outsourcing destinations in the world in a recent study by industry publication Global Services and investment advisory firm Tholons.This year's study tour is also co-organized by Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry.In 2006, Cebu delegation visited Silicon Valley in San Jose, California to emulate the culture of technology entrepreneurship which sustained its development.
   
   "The tour was a preview of things to come," Belen said.
   
   He said the Open Source Summit, being organized at present, is one of the key results of the tour.