US firm to set up $500-M call center in RP

Some 100,000 jobs are expected to be generated when a large US company opens a new call center, involving an investment of $500 million, in the Philippines soon, President Arroyo revealed yesterday.

"A big American corporation — I will not reveal the name yet because their board approval is still being finalized — has decided, in principle, to add one more big call center (here) at an amount of $500 million," the President announced in her weekly radio-television program "May Gloria Ang Bukas Mo."

Mrs. Arroyo pointed out that call centers are the 1-800 toll free numbers that Americans call to complain or ask about the products they bought in the US. The 100,000 new jobs are among accomplishments of her eight-day trip to Britain, Canada and the United States last week, Mrs. Arroyo said.

While the President was in New York to speak before the World Economic Forum and to promote the privatization of the National Power Corp., another American firm inked an investment deal to put up another call center that would create 70,000 more jobs.

According to Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II, who appeared in the President’s show, the Philippines is quickly gaining a reputation as a good place to set up call centers because of Filipinos’ facility with the English language.

Little-known to American consumers, she said, these call centers are actually located in the Philippines and manned by Filipinos who can acquire an American accent with little training.

"When an American buyer calls, he may think that he is talking to someone who is in the US but actually his call would be answered by someone right here in the Philippines," he said.

The government is encouraging more call centers because it is a technology-based industry that generates much investment and employment and does not harm the environment nor dissipate natural resources.

Roxas said some 1,000 new jobs can be generated by every $5 million invested in call centers and the Philippines is gaining a comparative advantage over countries, like India.

India is the country’s primary competitor in the call-center industry but, Roxas said, US firms prefer to invest here because Filipinos speak American English versus the British English in India and other Asian nations.

The President said many of the investments that were committed during her last foreign trip, totaling some $1.2 billion, were technology-based but there were also more traditional investment deals.

Among them was the local distribution of petroleum equipment envisioned by a US-Canada conglomerate.

Mrs. Arroyo said the $1.2 billion worth of investments would translate to at least 300,000 jobs and would be big boost to her pledge to create four million new jobs by June 2004.

According to official figures, about two million jobs have already been created since President Arroyo took office on Jan. 20 last year.

Aside from Roxas, Energy Secretary Vicente Perez and Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho also appeared in the President’s show to report on the accomplishments of her trip.