Outsourcing comes to the rescue of property market

MANILA (AFP) - The 1997 Asian financial crisis left the property market reeling but business process outsourcing came to the rescue, breathing new life into old office buildings and sparking a building boom in cities throughout the country.

Today, Manila's business district of Makati is bustling round the clock as an army of workers from call centers and other agencies service their clients from all over the world.

Both the government and the business sector expect more investment in the coming years, especially in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

BPO involves the contracting of a task to a third-party provider. Services include call centers, financial management, software writing, medical and legal transcription of files and even animation.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri said the country expects such BPO functions to bring in three billion dollars in revenues this year, with annual revenues of $10 billion in five years.