Call Center Earnings Will be at $7.3B in 2010
ANNUAL foreign exchange earnings from the Philippines call center industry will nearly triple to 7.3 billion dollars in 2010, up from about 2.6 billion dollars this year, an industry leader said Tuesday.
Industry employment would rise to some 506,500 call center agents compared to 179,000 this year, said Rainiero Borja, president of People Support, a call center firm.
Citing figures from the industry association and the government, Borja told an annual industry conference that call center employees would pay 8.6 billion pesos (162 million dollars) in income taxes this year with more money spent on downstream industries such as office rentals and equipment supplies.
President Gloria Arroyo has singled out the industry as a key potential growth area as Western companies move more of their office functions abroad to take advantage of the huge pool of English-speaking workers here.
“Given these numbers, the value of this industry and its impact on the Philippine economy cannot be understated. We could just be scratching the surface of what could be the next Philippine gold mine,” Borja said.
However he warned that the Philippines could also suffer the same problems that have afflicted its industry rivals in India such as “wage inflation” and high employee turnover.
