BPO stakeholders to push Phl as top outsourcing hub

CEBU, Philippines - Stakeholders in the Philippine Business Process Outsourcing and Information Technology from both private and public sectors are determined to make the country as one of the world’s outsourcing capital, amid the threat of the US anti-outsourcing.

The Department of Science and Technology (DOST), through the Information Communication and Technology Office (ICTO) and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) are now working together to push and introduce new programs and targeted to develop key BPO market segments.

Developing skills for the four fast growing services such as healthcare Information Management Outsourcing, Finance and Accounting Outsourcing, HR outsourcing and creative process outsourcing, including programs to sustain the country’s strength in call center operations.

The Philippines recently overtook India as the call center capital of the world, and in 2011 the IT-BPO industry contributed approximately US$11B in export revenues, about 640,000 direct jobs and approximately 1.5 million indirect jobs (e.g. construction and service jobs generated to serve the sector’s growth) to the Philippine Economy.

“We are the world’s number one call center provider and we intend to attain market leadership in the UK and Australia as well. With our new development programs for the IT-BPO Industry we also intend to position the Philippines as a world leader in Healthcare Information Management Outsourcing, Finance and Accounting Outsourcing, HR Outsourcing, and Creative Process Outsourcing. Our third goal is to double our market share by 2016 in Information Technology Outsourcing, Engineering Services Outsourcing and Multilingual BPO,” said ICTO Deputy Executive Director Alejandro Melchor

The IT-BPO industry estimates that its revenues were equivalent to approximately five percent of the country’s GDP in 2011 and expects this to reach 8.6% by 2016.

“We are expecting BPO not only to contribute significantly to the GDP in the next five years, its most significant impact would be on employment. ICTO is on the frontline of DOST’s BPO initiatives, our programs are not limited to that of industry but also improving the quality of our graduates and improve their chances of landing jobs not only in the BPO sector but in other industries as well,” said ICTO executive director Louis Casambre.

Casambre said that ICTO intends to provide strong support for BPAP-ICTO partnership initiatives such as the Global Competitiveness Assessment Tool (GCAT), recruitment marketing, workforce core skills development, and roadmapping.

Industry leaders are equally optimistic about the general outlook for the IT-BPO industry and have expressed appreciation for the support that they are getting from the Government

“DOST-ICTO has been very supportive of our industry and we are confident that these new initiatives will help us to achieve our objectives. We believe that we can generate $25 billion in export revenue, 1.3 million in direct jobs and over 3 million indirect jobs by 2016, but only if industry can further step up its partnership with government. The initiatives announced by DOST-ICTO today are a major step in that direction,” added BPAP Chairman Alfredo Ayala.

The Government assured the public, particularly call center and IT-BPO workers, that the Government and the IT-BPO industry maintain their optimism about the prospects of the Industry.

“We remain bullish about the prospects for IT-BPO and we believe in the talent and resilience of the Filipino. They have proven themselves time and time again, weathering the Asian economic crisis and recent global economic downturn. They didn’t just survive, they thrived, as can be proven in the consistent growth of the industry,” said DOST secretary Mario Montejo.

Montejo said that DOST’s S&T Scholarship Program, its Technology Business Incubator Program, Filipinnovation, entrepreneurship training and support to MSMEs will help ensure countryside development through ICT and S&T, and provide the manpower the IT-BPO Industry requires. (FREEMAN)