The Philippines’ security market is as bright and shiny as the country itself – growth prospects are good especially in the wake of a new government administration which places a strong focus on law and order. This, in turn, has encouraged more private companies to invest in the Philippines, propelling security even fu
The Philippines' security market is as bright and shiny as the country itself – growth prospects are good especially in the wake of a new government administration which places a strong focus on law and order. This, in turn, has encouraged more private companies to invest in the Philippines, propelling security even further.
“Before, my expectation was that the construction boom would only have a few years left, but with this new administration coming in, there may be ten more years of the construction boom. The government enforces everything right now and is more strict on corruption. Everybody will come over and invest more. That's a big opportunity for us,” said Benito Tamayo, President of Consolidated Robust, a distributor of residential intercoms and fire panels.
“I think maybe with the new political system it would attract more new investment and new factories,” concurred Magnus Zederfeldt, Regional Director for South Asia Pacific at Axis Communications. “A lot of international companies are coming in, and they will demand higher-level security as well.”
Among the various vertical markets, one that is particularly booming is the business process outsourcing industry or call centers. “Our first income-generating vertical is the BPO,” said Christian Marcos, Sales Manager at HID Global. “They have multiple sites, and we make sure we provide what the client requires in terms of authorizing who has the cards. Because there's a lot of employees and turnaround time is fast, we make sure we can deactivate card users and credentials immediately.”
“Mostly the call centers are looking for video surveillance, and they would use that to monitor their staff. Sometimes a call center will work on behalf of clients in the U.S. or Europe, so you night have one floor of call center that does only VISA or America Express, or they might do something for a particular company in the States, and that company may wish to be able to see overseas what their staff is doing,” said James Savage, GM of HMR Solutions.
Hospitality is another sector where robust growth is seen. “Hospitality is a big segment. As Philippines is rapidly developing their tourism industry, five-star hotels are on the increase, and operators are willing to spend more on surveillance. All this represents big opportunities for us,” said Eric Hu, APAC Sales Engineer at Dahua Technology.
Closely related to hospitality is real estate, which is also experiencing huge growth as commercial and residential constructions can be seen everywhere in Manila. “The condominiums – there's lots of condos and buildings that are really rising right now, so there's big potential with security management systems,” said Melody Mirasol, Marketing Manager at ELID, a distributor of access control products.
“For the private sector there is a lot of buildings being built, so our products – CCTV and biometric access control, we can install those in the building,” said Junar Jungco, Account Manager at Wireless Link, a distributor of wireless networking and security solutions.