MANILA, Philippines--IBM said it is opening an innovation center in the country, a move aimed at making its technologies more accessible to local software developers.

This innovation center will be located at the recently opened Ayala TechnoHub, right across the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

IBM has a facility in the technohub housing part of its business process outsourcing (BPO) operations.

The technology giant runs a global network of some 40 innovation centers, according to Janet Klein, director for ISV (independent software vendors) and developer relations at IBM Growth Markets.

Prior to the Philippines, IBM opened an innovation center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and will next open one in Vietnam.

Klein's unit was established by IBM as part of its strategy to concentrate its developer strategy in "growth" markets like Southeast Asia.

These innovation centers are meant for ISVs, developers and even customers doing software development work running on top of IBM technologies.

Klein noted that the Philippines has one of the largest pool of software developers in the region.

"There are between 150,000 to 200,000 developers here and we're looking to take the local [software] industry to the next level," Klein said in an interview.

The model has been deployed by other tech giants like Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, which have likewise set up facilities in UP.

Similar to Silicon Valley in the US, these facilities--located near or within the state university-are meant to harness and generate innovation from the academe.

Although it has existing developer programs, Klein said IBM is looking to tailor its initiatives to fit local markets.

"Through these centers, we're able to bring a lot of IBM's resources in the form of people and infrastructure," she said, not being specific about how much IBM is investing in its center here.

Oscar Contreras III, IBM Philippines ISV and developer relations manager, said there are also opportunities for developers in the local market.

"We have business partners here looking to build their resources and that entails services from developers," he said. "Also, sectors like BPO that can use innovative products and services."

Although the technology sector is currently in a downturn, IBM expects these centers to help local developers prepare themselves when the industry recovers.

"We cannot forecast anything specific," Klein said. "But there's huge opportunity for further software innovation in fields like healthcare, energy [reduced power consumption] and broadband, specifically how information will be used in new ways."

"What we can only be certain about is that given a period of time, we as an industry will come out of this downturn," she said.