Director for Business Development Brandon Midel and Cloud Solutions Specialist Ryan Canja from COMFAC, a leading company in the ICT/BPO sector in the Philippines visited Auckland and Wellington on 13-19 October 2014. Together with Ms. Margaret Millar, Business Development Manager, GERAS Sotware Venture Ltd., they called on Ambassador Virginia H. Benavidez at “Ang Bahay” (Philippine Ambassador’s residence) and shared with her the project launch of GERAS, aged care management which they are doing in cooperation with Auckland based company Integral Consulting. Ambassador Benavidez said that the ICT is a niche area of cooperation as New Zealand’s ICT/software industry’s strengths in “weightless” products, research and development, science and innovation and high value software applications complement the distinct advantages of the Philippine ICT/BPO industry in terms of availability of highly skilled manpower in the voice and non-voice segments, knowledge processing, cost competitiveness, central location, access to regional and international markets and good value proposition.

Honorary Consul General Paulo Garcia linked up Mr. Midel and Mr. Canja with Mr. Adam McConnochie of Asia New Zealand Foundation in Auckland who helped arrange a meeting with Dr Gaurav Sharma, Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Department of Surgery of the Counties Manukau District Health Board. Both parties have considered their meeting a major discovery and one that can potentially lead to a very good New Zealand project using Philippines technology and expertise.

Mr. Midel and Mr. Canja are top men in their field and COMFAC (http://comfacgroup.com/) is one of the biggest players in the Philippine ICT/BPO industry. COMFAC has been one of the ICT/BPO companies from the Philippines which have come to New Zealand for business events and meetings arranged by the New Zealand Trade Enterprise (NZTE).