UST Global opens new Philippine site

Global IT services firm UST Global announced its expansion of its operations in the Philippines after launching the firm's second facility recently in Metro Manila.

According to a report by The Manila Times, the information technology firm is planning to increase its workforce to 3,000 to 5,000 people in the next few years in keeping with its plan of tripling the number of its global workforce in the following years.

UST Global currently has around 200 employees in its original Philippine site in Makati City, which they launched in 2007.

Its CEO Sajan Pillai told The Times that they would hire 500 more people to occupy its new facility in the country.

He added that the company would increase the number of its employees in the new $16-million facility here to as much as 1,000 people within a year.

Among the jobs available in these Philippine sites are software maintenance and development, and providing infrastructure support to leading retail firms in Europe and the United States.

Pillai said that the Philippines has a raw pool of engineering and IT professionals. He added that according to their market studies, they have to provide "higher-value" jobs to these talented Filipinos.

Although the country is short of candidates for middle management, the executive said that this could be dealt with through in-house training.

Pillai also said that there is an increase in the demand for jobs in the technology sector.

He added that Filipinos who have graduated from IT and engineering would not have to search for overseas employment as UST Global would offer competitive compensation to potential workers.