CEBU, Philippines - While businessmen in the Philippines are keeping a positive perspective on Donald Trump's victory as President of United States, the Philippine outsourcing sector is warned to brace for possible slower business ahead.
"If he walks his talk about penalizing outsourcing, while I think outsourcing is here to stay, industry growth will slow down," said Cebu Business Club (CBC) president Gordon Allan 'Dondi' Joseph.
Although Joseph believes that Trump's election rhetoric is a lot of "empty talk", "I personally don't think he will make good president."
Depending on his performance and policies to be formally implemented, Joseph hopes that he will not bring danger to the US economy, which will affect the Philippines.
"And if he is a poor President then there is danger that the USA will fall back into recession. If that happens there will of course be a dislocation for Philippine trade with the USA - and possible problems for the BPO industry," Joseph warned.
The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) in the Philippines, which is serving over 70 percent of the total service to US-based clients has to be prepared on the possible demand plunge.
"We of course cannot discount the effect his [Trump] presidency will have on the BPO industry," Joseph added.
Trump has already made statements before that he wants to bring jobs back to America, so that will impact the Philippines in terms of the outsourcing industry,
On the other hand, businessman Jose Soberano III believes otherwise saying "the BPO industry will continue to flourish as we provide better efficiencies for multinational companies who will always want to create a competitive edge in their business and profit pursuits."
Soberano, whose company Cebu Landmasters Inc., is one of the active local real estate developers in Cebu, said that despite unpleasing impression of some capitalists and investors on Trump's victory, he is always looking at the brighter side.
"If there are more returnees from the USA perhaps due to some restrictive rulings to come under the Trump administration, then there will be more educated English speaking Filipinos for our BPO industry," said Soberano. (FREEMAN)