DTI wooing Chinese BPO companies to locate in Phl

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is courting Chinese Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms to locate in the Philippines.

Trade Undersecretary Cristino L. Panlilio visited China recently to promote the Philippines as an investment site. 

Panlilio said the Chinese could benefit from putting up non-voice BPO services in the country. Likewise, he said that the strong English skills of the Filipinos is a good advantage.

He also said that Chinese firms can put up banking BPOs in the country because the skill level of Filipino bankers are very high. He said Filipino bankers are at par with the world’s best and the Chinese can learn from them.

Meanwhile, the P1-billion investment of Hangzhou Wahaha Group was put on hold because Panlilio said there is a transition in the leadership of the Chinese firm. He said he wanted to meet with Wahaha while was in China but was informed that the son was taking over the reins of the business and the possible investment here may be put on hold.

Earlier, Zong Qing Hou, chairman and general manager of the Hangzhou Wahaha Group has already expressed interest in investing P1 billion for a sugar plantation in Pampanga and Tarlac.

Panlilio said the Wahaha Group has not yet answered the project proposal sent by Escaler’s Sweet Crystals Integrated Sugar Mills Corp. Panlilio said that the proposal was sent before Christmas. In the project proposal, Panlilio said that Wahaha will earn P50,000 net per hectare annually. 

“We have given them the financial projections but up to now there is still no feedback,” he noted.

 He explained that Wahaha will be trading the sugar that they will be harvesting in the country in New York or other trading places in order to leverage their costs. Sugar is the largest cost of Wahaha.

Panlilio said that Wahaha would like to source their sugar from the Philippines. Wahaha is the leading beverage maker in China. It consumes as much as 300,000 tons of sugar annually. This represents 13.6 percent of the Philippines’ 2.2 million metric ton yearly production of sugar.