BPO grow by a faster 30%-35% in 2010
Philippines’ business process outsourcing (BPO) industry will likely grow by a faster 30%-35% this year from about 20% last year, on the back of expansion to provinces and increasing focus on high-value services, an official of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) said yesterday.
Speaking in a forum organized by the University of Amsterdam and the University of the Philippines, CICT Commissioner Monchito B. Ibrahim said the projected growth this year will be in terms of both employment and revenues.
“We are looking to end 2010 with total employment of 600,000 or 650,000,” Mr. Ibrahim said. “We also hope that there will be more big names coming to the Philippines.”
Last year, the Information Technology-BPO industry employed 446,000 workers, from 372,000 in 2008, according to data Mr. Ibrahim presented at the forum.
In terms of revenues, the industry raked in $7.3 billion last year, from $6.1 billion in 2008.
“Among the subsectors, the fastest growing is not the voice service, but the software or IT subsector,” said Mr. Ibrahim, adding that the second fastest growing subsector is engineering, followed by back-office services.
“Slowly, the Philippines is going up the value chain,” he said.
“We arehoping to see faster growth rate in the non-voice sector. If we are able to do this, the long term sustainability of the industry is much more stable.”
Niels Beerepoot, a lecturer at the University of Amsterdam, said the move to high-value services is a plus for the Philippines.
“It is good to know that there is a lot of awareness that the sector needs to move towards higher value-added activities, compared to the traditional voice-based activities,” he told the forum.
“Prospects look good, but we need to be critical,” he added referring to competition coming not only from India or China but other countries as well.
Mr. Ibrahim said the industry also wants to expand operations outside Metro Manila, which currently accounts for 30% of total business. Businesses in the provinces should contribute 35% this year, he said.
As of 2008, Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines and CICT data showed that “next wave” cities for BPO operations include Metro Laguna, Metro Cavite, Iloilo, Davao and Bacolod.
source: Josephine V. Sison, itmatters.com.ph
