The private and the government sectors recently got together to form the first ICT (Information & Communications Technology) Council in Camarines Sur. The collaboration which was pushed by the Presidential Assistant for Bicol Affairs Tomasito Monzon and the Office of the President brings together movers and stakeholders in the ICT world.

Caption: Officers of the newly - formed CSur ICT Council.

        Elected as officers of the ICT Council are the following: E. Daniel A. De Leon, President; Albert Pasicolan, VP for Industry (Sutherland); Bernard Tapan, VP for Academe (WRI); Dr. Jose Serrano, VP for Government (TESDA); Minnie Gomez, Secretary (DTI, Cam Sur); Zenaida Llorin, Treasurer (PCLC); Patt Felizmenio, Auditor (DOST); Sarah C. Imperial, PRO (Bayan Tel); Col. Jose I. Tuason, Advisers; Asec Chito Monzon. Among the upcoming projects of the ICT Council is a Regional ICT Congress set on February 22, 2008 at the Avenue Square Convention Center. DOST, DTI, CHED, DEPED, OP & the Industries, CCIs, NGOs/POs are the expected participants of the congress.

        Foremost in the programs of the new ICT Council is rising to the challenge of the big industry players who have set up their call centers here. An example is Sutherland, a call center that needs more than 3,000 agents for their various offshore clients.

        Camarines Sur needs to meet the demands of Sutherland and this would include finding out their standards so that educators and other agencies can re-engineer training programs to suit them.