Monday, December 04, 2006 BPO still growing; Cebu can lead industry in RP
CEBU could take the lead in the growth of the call center industry in the Philippines because of the province’s relatively high literacy rate, according to an economist.
But Bernardo Villegas, vice president of the University of Asia and the Pacific, said Cebu should go beyond the call center service and develop the other “equally” beneficial, in terms of job generatiion, business process outsourcing (BPOs) services, especially with the deteriorating English proficiency of the country’s human resources.
He said the BPO sector, which includes call centers, is considered as one of the high growth industries in the country. The other high growth industries are manpower exports or overseas Filipino workers; tourism, transport and telecommunications; electronics and semiconductor devices; high value garments and fashion goods; high value furniture; food and agri-business; wellness, health and beauty services; logistics; retirement villages; mining; and education.
Villegas said in a year-end economic briefing in Cebu City that the call center industry in the country is still at its infancy stage compared to those of other countries such as Australia, India and China.
This is the reason the industry is growing at a 100 percent level in the Philippines, he said. He added that the growth of the call center sector in Australia, India and China are at eight percent, 65 percent and 42 percent, respectively.
“We have a wide area of opportunities in this sector. Cebu could take the lead,” Villegas said.
Next to Manila
In a study, international research agency neoIT named Cebu as the next best potential site to Manila in the Philippines for offshore offices of information technology (IT) and BPO. This, as the increasing costs of operation and competitive pressures in relation to labor supply in Metro Manila continue to diminish the metropolis’ attractiveness.
According to the study, Cebu surpassed other seven cities in the country in two of the four key factors — people, infrastructure, financial and catalyst —which are considered to have impact on the competitiveness of a city to attract IT and BPO companies.
While Davao and Cebu are comparable in population, Cebu ranks higher as to the size of its labor pool, a sub-factor in the people factor. This is due to the larger number of educational institutions in the province, which means there are more graduates joining the work force in Cebu than in Davao.
Villegas said the country also has potentials in other BPO services.
According to McKinsey and Co., the customer contact services account for only 24 percent of the global BPO market by 2010.
Human resource services account for the highest at 28 percent; finance and accounting, remote education and data search and integration management at 11 percent each; website services and network consulting and management at four percent each; engineering and design and market research at three percent each; and transcription at one percent. (JBN)
