For almost a decade, Pueblo de Panay has been building something in Roxas City, Capiz that, at the beginning, required a fair amount of belief.
The idea was simple: meaningful business activity should not have to remain concentrated in the country’s biggest cities.
That sounds obvious today. It was less obvious when PDP TechnoPark first started taking shape.
Companies do not move because of good intentions. They look for talent, infrastructure, reliability, access, business continuity, room to grow and a place where people can actually live and work well.
That is why the story of PDP TechnoPark has never really been about office space alone.
It is part of a larger story about Pueblo de Panay and what we believe countryside development can become.
Our mission is to be a Meaningful Catalyst and Source of Pride in the Communities we serve.
Our vision is to become a Leader for Inclusive Growth in the Philippine Countryside by 2035.
Those are ambitious statements. What matters is whether people can eventually see them taking shape on the ground.
PDP TechnoPark is one of the places where that is happening.
Growth Has Been Moving Beyond the Biggest Cities
The Philippine IT-BPM industry has long been one of the country’s strongest engines of employment and investment.
Its growth first concentrated in Metro Manila, then expanded into other established centers such as Cebu, Clark, Davao and Iloilo.
That happened for good reasons. These locations had the talent pools, commercial space, telecommunications, power infrastructure and supporting services that large operations needed.
But industries change.
Companies become larger. Labor markets tighten. Diversification becomes more important. Site selection teams start asking different questions.
Where else can we grow?
Where can we find another labor market?
Where can we build capacity without simply adding more pressure to the same locations? This is where places such as Roxas City start becoming more interesting.
Not because Roxas is trying to become another Manila or Cebu.
It does not need to.
The opportunity is to offer something complementary: another operating base, another talent catchment, another place where a business can establish roots and grow over time.
That proposition only works, however, if the location can back it up.
Pueblo de Panay has spent years working on that part.
A Platform That Is Already Operating
PDP TechnoPark sits within Pueblo de Panay Township and is listed by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority as an IT Park in Roxas City.
That matters because it is not a proposed technology district waiting for its first proof of concept. Its first BPO building has already hosted a large-scale IT-BPM operation. That operating history changes the discussion.
It means Roxas City has already participated in an industry usually associated with much larger urban centers.
It also means the question is no longer whether a BPO operation can exist here. It already has.
The more useful question now is how much further the ecosystem can grow. BPO Building 2 Is the Next Step
BPO Building 2 adds another layer of capacity.
The eight-floor development includes six dedicated office floors with a combined gross leasable area of 9,354.66 square meters.
Typical gross floor plates are approximately 1,800 square meters, with up to 1,599.11 square meters of leasable office space per floor and a stated floor efficiency of 87%.
Those figures are useful to property people.
From an investment perspective, what matters more is what they allow a company to do.
The building can potentially support a single large occupier, separate operating units, phased growth, multiple accounts or business lines, and dedicated production, training and support areas.
That flexibility matters because operations rarely stay the same size forever. A location should not only work on opening day.
It should still work when the company becomes larger.
That is why BPO Building 2 matters in the broader story of PDP TechnoPark. It is not the beginning.
It is the next stage.
Preparing for a More AI Supportive Environment
There is another change happening across the IT-BPM industry that matters to location decisions.
Artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday operations.
Some tasks will be automated. Others will be assisted by AI. And many roles will change rather than disappear, requiring people to work alongside increasingly capable technology.
For investment locations, this creates a different question.
It is no longer enough to ask whether a place can accommodate a traditional contact center. Companies will increasingly want to know whether the environment can support more technology-enabled operations, shared services, knowledge work and teams whose productivity is being augmented by AI.
We see this as an important part of the next stage of PDP TechnoPark.
An AI Supportive Environment, as we use the term, does not mean claiming that a building itself is powered by artificial intelligence.
It means creating the conditions in which businesses adopting AI can operate and evolve: reliable power, resilient connectivity, flexible workplaces and, just as importantly, people who can develop new skills as the nature of work changes.
BPO Building 2 has been designed around several of those fundamentals. Its planned N+1 power redundancy, multi-carrier capability and adaptable office configuration provide a physical foundation for digitally enabled operations.
But buildings are only one part of becoming AI supportive.
The longer-term opportunity is in the workforce.
As AI takes on more repetitive work, the value people bring may increasingly shift toward judgment, communication, problem solving, domain knowledge and the ability to use technology effectively.
For a countryside investment location, that creates both an opportunity and a responsibility.
We have to think not only about how many people are available today, but about how industry, schools, government and the community can help prepare people for the work that will be required tomorrow.
That journey will take time.
But it is one we believe belongs naturally within Pueblo de Panay’s larger vision for inclusive growth.
Reliability Comes Before Excitement
There is one thing investors usually do when they look at a location outside the usual business centers: they ask more questions.
That is fair.
A new or less familiar location has to earn confidence.
For IT-BPM operations, that often starts with power and connectivity.
According to the building specifications, BPO Building 2 is designed with 24/7 backup power under an N+1 configuration, providing additional capacity intended to maintain redundancy during equipment failure or maintenance.
The development also incorporates an on-site solar photovoltaic system.
On telecommunications, the building documentation indicates capacity for up to four providers, with PLDT and Globe already present in the area.
The building is also described as LEED-ready, with double-pane argon-filled glazing, VRF air conditioning and other design elements intended to support energy efficiency.
These are technical details, but investors usually read them in a simpler way. Can the site keep running?
Can connectivity be diversified?
Can the building support modern workplace standards?
Can the operation grow without creating new problems?
In the end, infrastructure is really about confidence.
The Bigger Question Is the Workforce
Buildings can be built relatively quickly.
Workforces take much longer.
And in an AI-supported economy, workforce readiness will increasingly be measured by more than headcount.
The question will also be whether people can learn, adapt and work effectively with new technologies.
That makes the presence of a young regional labor pool particularly interesting, but it also makes continued investment in skills and industry-academe collaboration increasingly important.
Project demographic information places Capiz’s population at more than 835,000, with approximately 64% of the population of working age and a median age of 25.
The same information estimates that around 6,000 college graduates enter the Capiz workforce every year.
The largest graduate groups include business, management and accountancy, followed by education, with IT, computer science, engineering and technology also contributing to the annual talent pool.
There is also a regional comparison worth looking at.
Pueblo de Panay’s 2026 presentation estimates that Northern Panay accounts for roughly 40% of Panay Island’s population but only about 5% of its current IT-BPM workforce.
That number should be treated carefully.
A large population does not automatically mean a ready BPO workforce.
Companies still need to test skills, compensation, recruitment conversion, transportation, night shift willingness, management depth and attrition.
But the gap is still worth studying.
An underpenetrated labor market can be interesting precisely because it has not yet been competed over to the same extent as a mature one.
For an investor, that is not proof.
It is a reason to look closer.
And sometimes that is enough to start a conversation.
The Workplace Is Only Part of the Story
One thing becomes clear when you spend years developing a mixed-use community: businesses do not operate in isolation.
A company may lease office space.
Its people still need transportation, food, housing, banking, recreation and everyday services. Clients, auditors, trainers and visiting executives need places to stay.
Companies need suppliers, partners and access to government and institutions. This is where PDP TechnoPark being part of Pueblo de Panay becomes important.
The wider development includes residential, commercial, educational, hospitality, government and recreational components.
Hotels, banks, dining establishments, schools, transportation and other daily services are located within or around the development.
Individually, these may look like separate projects.
In reality, they strengthen one another.
A hotel makes a corporate visit easier.
A school contributes to the future workforce.
Housing reduces the distance between home and work.
Restaurants, retail and recreation make the environment more livable.
Government offices improve access to public services.
Over time, these things matter.
They are part of what makes an investment location work.
What Inclusive Growth Means in Practice
Inclusive growth can sometimes sound abstract.
For us, it becomes more meaningful when viewed through jobs and choices.
When quality employment is concentrated in only a few cities, people from the provinces often have to leave home simply to access better opportunities.
There is nothing wrong with leaving.
People should be free to build careers wherever they want.
The problem is when leaving becomes the only real option.
A graduate from Capiz should be able to move to Manila, Cebu or overseas because he or she wants to.
But there should also be a credible option to stay.
And for those who have already left, there should be a reason to consider coming back. That is where investment and inclusive growth begin to meet.
When a company creates hundreds of jobs in a provincial location, the impact does not stop with the employees.
Those salaries support households.
Households create demand for housing, transportation, retail and services. Businesses need suppliers.
Professionals gain new clients.
Schools adjust programs to industry needs.
Entrepreneurs see new opportunities.
One investment can make the location more attractive to the next one.
That is how growth becomes more durable.
And that is how it begins taking root.
Sometimes Someone Has to Move First
Countryside development has a familiar problem.
Companies may hesitate because the infrastructure is not yet complete.
Developers may hesitate because companies have not yet committed.
If everyone waits for someone else, very little happens.
For Pueblo de Panay, this has meant taking a longer view.
Some infrastructure has to be created before every user is known.
Some roads have to be built before every lot is occupied.
Some commercial capacity has to exist before demand is obvious.
Sometimes the platform has to come first.
PDP TechnoPark reflects that thinking.
Nearly a decade of development has already established a foundation.
BPO Building 2 expands it.
Not Every Investor Will Be the Right Investor It is also important to say what this article is not claiming.
Roxas City will not be the right answer for every company.
Different businesses have different operating models, talent requirements, connectivity needs and risk tolerances.
Some will need very large pools of specialized talent immediately.
Some will prioritize international connectivity above everything else.
Others may place more value on diversification, expansion capacity, labor availability and the ability to establish another regional base.
Any serious investor will still conduct proper due diligence.
They will study the labor market.
They will examine compensation.
They will review power, connectivity and business continuity.
They will assess transportation, security, recruitment and management depth. They will look closely at incentives, compliance and operating costs.
That is exactly what they should do.
Pueblo de Panay does not need every investor to conclude that Roxas City is right for them.
What matters is that serious investors can evaluate Roxas City on its merits rather than dismissing it simply because it sits outside the country’s traditional business centers.
That, by itself, is progress.
Our role is not to remove due diligence.
Our role is to make the location worth doing due diligence on.
Moving Beyond the Lower-Cost Argument
Provincial investment has often been sold around one idea: lower cost.
Cost matters.
But cost alone is not enough.
An inexpensive location that cannot provide talent, reliability or scale can become expensive very quickly.
The stronger proposition is capability.
Can the location recruit?
Can it remain operational?
Can it support reliable connectivity?
Can the company scale?
Can employees build good lives around the workplace?
Can the workforce adapt as technology changes?
Can the ecosystem keep improving as the investor grows?
Those are more difficult questions.
They are also more important ones.
This is where PDP TechnoPark fits into the larger Pueblo de Panay mission.
It shows that countryside development does not have to be positioned merely as a cheaper alternative.
It can aspire to be a credible investment option in its own right.
Mission Made Visible
Pueblo de Panay’s mission is to be a Meaningful Catalyst and Source of Pride in the Communities.
The word “catalyst” is important.
A catalyst does not create every outcome on its own.
It helps create the conditions for other things to happen.
A developer cannot create an industry by itself.
It cannot produce every graduate.
It cannot determine where every company will invest.
But it can build the environment that makes those decisions easier.
That is the role we see for Pueblo de Panay.
Build the physical platform.
Create room for businesses.
Bring together commerce, government, education, housing, hospitality and recreation.
Help prepare the environment for the technologies and jobs that are coming next. Then allow those parts to reinforce one another.
PDP TechnoPark is one part of that effort.
It has already been part of Roxas City’s development story for almost a decade. BPO Building 2 now creates another layer of capacity for whatever comes next. Looking Toward 2035
Our vision is to become a Leader for Inclusive Growth in the Philippine Countryside by 2035.
There is still a long way to go.
And leadership in countryside growth cannot simply mean building more. It has to mean building something that lasts.
Investment that creates jobs.
Jobs that strengthen households.
Infrastructure that attracts more enterprise.
Education that responds to opportunity.
People who are able to adapt as industries and technologies change.
Businesses that grow alongside communities.
Communities that become more confident about their own future.
That is the kind of countryside growth we want to help build.
It is also why we continue to invest before every outcome is certain.
Sometimes demand comes first and infrastructure follows.
At other times, somebody has to build the platform before the opportunity becomes obvious. Where Countryside Growth Is Taking Root
The Philippine IT-BPM industry will continue to grow in Metro Manila, Cebu, Clark, Iloilo, Davao and other established centers.
There is no reason that growth has to stop there.
Northern Panay has a substantial population.
Capiz continues to produce graduates.
Roxas City already supports IT-BPM operations.
PDP TechnoPark provides an established PEZA-listed investment platform.
BPO Building 2 adds more physical capacity and infrastructure designed around the requirements of modern technology-enabled businesses, while giving PDP TechnoPark a platform from which to develop a more AI Supportive Environment as the IT-BPM industry itself continues to evolve.
And around it, Pueblo de Panay continues to develop the wider environment in which businesses and communities can grow together.
None of this happened overnight.
That may be the point.
PDP TechnoPark has been taking root for almost a decade.
What we are seeing today is not the beginning of countryside growth.
It is the next stage of it.
For Pueblo de Panay, that is perhaps the clearest expression of our mission in action. Not simply imagining a future in which more opportunities reach the Philippine countryside. But steadily helping build a place where that future is already becoming visible. Pueblo de Panay. Where countryside growth is taking root.
For those who want to look more closely at the business and expansion proposition behind PDP TechnoPark:
PDP TechnoPark — Expand with Confidence