BPO sector set to create 1M jobs by 2010

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is expected to further expand in the coming years due the competitive edge the country has over India, the current leader, and will thus play a major role in pulling up the Philippines' gross domestic product (GDP).

The industry has remained optimistic its $ 12-billion projected revenues and about one million jobs generation would be achieved by 2010 despite the continued strengthening of the peso.

This was expressed by Oscar Sañez, chief executive officer of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP), even as he admitted that the peso appreciation has been affecting the revenues of BPO firms since middle of last year.

“We have shared those goals before like I said, we hope that we can reach $ 12 billion by 2010 - that's our ambitious goal. This is based on assumption that things will ever work well for the economy,” he said.

In a special study on the Philippines, GlobalSource, a research firm based in New York , assessed that the BPO service industry in the country has spawned collateral benefits to the domestic economy such as perking-up consumption spending.

"This is expected to expand further considering that the Philippines is very competitive in BPO services," GlobalSource believed.

For now, Philippines, based on an International Monetary Fund, study is second to India with people, service maturity, financial benefit and infrastructure as the basis.

In fact, the firm noted that BPO service industry has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years from a mere "one-half of a percent of GDP" at the turn of the millennium.

And more importantly, GlobalSource stressed BPO has "attracted a low of attention because of its swift growth in terms of revenues, employment and export earnings from a "practically nil" start.

The best proof of this is the decision of foreign banks and other financial institutions such as HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank to put their own BPO subsidiaries tasked to support their major banking and other back room operations.

The BPO industry in the country covers a gamut of services ranging from call centers to data transcription, and software developments.

Its phenomenal growth has trickled down to the other segment of the service sector of the economy with the mushrooming of new establishments and expansion of food chains open round the clock.

The importance of BPO contribution to the Philippines GDP, thus, cannot be discounted.