Philippines Outsourcing Gets Nod From Int'l Biz Leaders
Friday, April 4, 2008

THE country's BPO (business process outsourcing) and call center industry is getting positive response to the international business leaders, so said by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Mrs. Arroyo told the participants from different nations that she is seriously pushing for the country as the best investment destination in Asia. The President, in her statement, noted that she will seriously promote the BPO, especially contact centers as one of the premiere industries in the country.

The World Economic Forum is the first international activity attended by Mrs. Arroyo from the start of the year 2008. The three-day forum from January 25-28, aims to promote international business understanding and trade relations within its neighboring countries and partners.

She and the rest of the Philippine delegation, along with her husband lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo, and daughter Evangeline Lourdes "Luli" Arroyo, stressed that the Philippines is now becoming a global promoter of the outsourcing industry. In her statement published in the national dailies revealed that some largest contact centers enjoyed the atmosphere of making business in the country.

The international business forum is a great opportunity for the country to be acknowledged in terms of sustaining the growth of the outsourcing industry. The forum is the venue wherein the Philippine leaders may convince, or express their sentiments to the international investors to choose the country as next site for business relations.

The Filipino expertise in IT (information technology), contact center companies, among others are now the word of mouth in the forum when Mrs. Arroyo delivered her speech, news report said.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo recent statement in the joint National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)-Cabinet cluster and the National Anti-Poverty Commission-Cabinet cluster meeting, said: "another central goal of our trip is to continue the relentless promotion of the Philippines as a great place to invest and do business."

"For the first time in a generation, the Philippine economy is on a path to sustained economic growth, creating millions of new jobs and billions of new pesos in revenue to invest in our people and our infrastructure to build up our nation. Foreign investment is central to that progress," the President said. The statement was posted under the Office of the Press Secretary website.

To prove this, the country's gross domestic product grew up to 7.1 percent in the first nine months of 2007.

In addition, the President is also scheduled to fly to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday noon (early Saturday evening in Manila), which also seek more investments to the country. The more international relations will be a great boom in the Philippines because the country is gaining reputation in terms of the outsourcing and other possible trade.

To date, the country is considered as the leading supplier of call center agents among the international key players' investors in the global outsourcing. Every year, the demand of the customer service is growing.

It is now the full responsibility of the Philippine Government to fuel the manpower services in filling in the vacant positions. It has been said that the country produces about 380,000 graduates every year. On the part of the Department of Education (DepEd), English is seriously pushed to be the medium of instruction in every classroom. The National Government allocated budget to DepEd in order to strengthen its campaign in producing competitive graduates.

In 2010, the National Government expects to achieve its goal to provide millions of jobs for every Filipino citizen. To date, ten of thousands Filipinos are presently employed in different call centers, and BPO companies operating in the country.

The outsourcing industry is a blessing in lifting the lives of every Filipino against poverty and economic crisis.