In the "IT services market in the Philippines: a fledgling ready to take flight" report, Ovum outlines that the government initiatives to establish a central credit worthiness system, and its investments in the education sector will increase the IT services demand in the country.

"While currently Philippines is a small IT services market in revenue terms, less attractive than other South East Asian countries such as Singapore, Vietnam, or Malaysia, it offers good opportunities for vendors focused on the public sector," explained Deepika Chaubey, managing analyst at Ovum and author of the report.

The Philippine government plans to invest in various initiatives involving technology adoption. It is focusing on the development of a central credit worthiness database. This includes establishing a central authority for compiling data from financial institutions, to facilitate easier verification of a borrower's credit worthiness. Once the database is fully built, there will be a sharp increase in the issuance of credit cards in the country, which will further increase the demand for data management, networking and security services.

The government is also investing in the education sector and has initiated many technology-based programs such as the computerization of all public schools and adoption of e-learning in the urban areas that are scheduled to be completed by 2010. The Philippine Department of Education signed a five-year deal with Oracle in October 2008 worth $380 million to roll out Oracle's ThinkQuest technology program (an online learning platform) for 500 public elementary schools. The government's intention to modernize all 6,000 public schools, and several private ones as well, will offer numerous opportunities to IT vendors. Once all the public schools are computerized, the demand for Web-based learning platforms, education management systems, assessment and data services, and networking services should increase.