Sun.Star Economic Forum

AN EXECUTIVE of a business process outsourcing (BPO) company admitted that the companies in the industry are partly to blame for misconceptions about the kind of work in a BPO company.

Yogesh Malhotra, lead for Accenture’s Philippine Delivery Center Network for BPO, said “glamorizing” the work of a BPO employee is one of the reasons that many leave the industry.

Most of the recruitment advertisements posted by BPO companies usually highlight “fun at work.” (more)

AMID the lack of qualified people who meet the labor demands of business process outsourcing (BPO) companies, an official of a Cebu-based foundation remains bullish about Cebu’s potential to be a Silicon Valley or an “innovation island” and contribute to the country’s economic growth through technological entrepreneurship.

Bonifacio Belen, executive director of the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (Cedf-it), explained that Cebuanos possess the creativity and entrepreneurship skills that are waiting to be tapped by industry players. (more)

Available workforce, a good business environment, and available sites for expansion, which drive the growth of the outsourcing and off-shoring industry, are also the factors posing problems to the sector.

Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) chief executive officer Oscar Sanez said that if the country fails to address these issues in the next few years, outsourcing and off-shoring investments will go to other emerging markets. Read the rest of this entry »

By Ernesto G. Yap
University of San Carlos

ON July 17, 2008, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) raised its key interest rates by half a percent. This is supposed to help arrest rising inflation. Higher interest rates decrease spending as people are motivated to save. With less spending, there is less demand of goods and, therefore, inflation is expected to slow down.

On the other hand, higher interest rates would increase payments to all kinds of bank loans, as we assume production to be constant. But since businesses have to pay higher interest for their bank loans, would they not increase the prices of goods and services they provide? Is this not going to fuel more inflation?

With higher interest rates, will prospective investors be motivated to invest?

Under a high-interest scenario, an investor will have a higher required rate of return. This will then limit the choices of investment he or she can venture into.

Yet, in our past economic performance, investments were always below expectations, making our future sustained consumption in doubt. (more)

CEBU’S economy is considered to be the fastest growing among other provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao, and is the fifth largest in the country.

In recent years, the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry has become one of the main drivers of economic growth in the province. Nearly all recently-completed buildings, as well as those being constructed at the moment, are meant to cater to the projected need for office space of BPO companies.

This year’s Sun.Star Economic Forum (SEF), as a resource of information on Cebu’s business environment, will tackle issues related to the BPO industry.(more)

Cebu is among the biggest contributors to the country in terms of industrial and services outputs. National Economic Development Authority (Neda) 7 Director Marlene Ca P. Rodriguez said Central Visayas, of which Cebu is part of, was the fourth biggest contributor to industrial output and second biggest contributor to services output.

Since the bulk of industries in Central Visayas is in Cebu, Rodriguez said it could be assumed that most of the industrial output of the region comes from Cebu. On service-oriented industries, Central Visayas posted the second highest output among regions in the country. Major service-oriented industries in Cebu are those that support tourism.

National Economic Development Authority (Neda) 7 Director Marlene Ca P. Rodriguez says macroeconomic figures are only down to regional levels and this poses a problem to getting economic data for the provinces. To show economic figures for the provinces, the economic agency just uses proxy indicators, she added.

The Sun.Star Economic Forum started at 9:45 a.m. with Sun.Star Publishing Inc. chairman Jesus B. Garcia Jr. giving the welcome remarks and Senate President Manuel B. Villar Jr. giving the keynote address.

Investing in product-based companies is seen to be a better option than going into outsourcing of services, where India and China will outperform the Philippines in the next five to 10 years, a local industry player warned.

Lawrence Hughes, chairman and chief technology officer of InfoWeapons, said “outsourcing is only a temporary phase at best” and the best direction to take is the creation of products.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the success rate of call center recruitment efforts averaging only two to five percent, industry players should look into the outsourcing of other services, like legal and accounting, to increase employment.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Smart Communications Inc. chief executive officer and president Napoleon Nazareno said the English language skills of Filipinos is deteriorating, making it harder to staff call centers, so Philippine firms should consider “moving up the outsourcing value chain” and going into software development, computer graphics and animation instead.

Read the rest of this entry »