Converge CEO and Co-Founder Dennis Anthony Uy, aptly nicknamed in business circles as the ‘Pampanga Dennis Uy’ is about to put in motion his larger-than-life vision of creating a Tech City in his hometown – expected to be the birthplace of the next Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
In this personal venture, Uy envisions using the 117-hectare land in Pampanga – straddling Mexico and Angeles City, to attract the right industries and spur the growth of innovation-led sectors. The Tech City is seen to be a catalyst for innovation and technology education and practice in the country.
He has tapped expert consultants and technical advisers to kick-off the multi-billion peso project, including the Egis Group which is a global construction engineering company that designs and operates intelligent infrastructure and buildings. Other consultants in the Tech City project are 10Design, EY Philippines – SGV & Co., B-Global, Rurban Strategic Development Planners Inc., GFP Architects, and Colliers.
“I dream of creating an ecosystem for technology. In this venture and will concentrate on innovation and tech-related sectors. Software programmers, animators, game developers, even semiconductor designers – we want to attract downstream tech fields in the Tech City. At the same time, we want to nurture the business side of innovation, hence our pitch to start-ups as well,” said Uy, at a recent meeting with the project team of the tech metropolis.
Silicon Valley is undoubtedly the inspiration for this tech city for Uy but with distinct “Filipino” foundations – meaning education and enculturation will be informed by local know-how.
“I want this technology hub to have training institutes that will certify Filipinos as IT engineers and professionals, the education will be from the ground up and produce the workforce with the necessary skills in technology. Tech City will be an incubation hub as well for this industry which encompasses sub sectors like fintech, e-commerce, and digital content creation,” added Uy.
True to its vision to become the home of cutting-edge technology, the Tech City will also house the headquarters and data centers of Converge.
“We’re moving into value-added services or products that go beyond connectivity. We have the digital highway in place so in the future, there will be apps like OTT services, software and cloud solutions that need to be housed in our data centers,” said Uy.
