Government to raise int’l share in BPO voice services provider

AN OFFICIAL said Wednesday the government is positive to raise the country’s international share in BPO voice services provider from 24 to 30 percent, pushing the Philippines’ ranking as the global leader.

“Although we are number one in call centers, we have been actually trailing behind India in attracting UK and Australian market and we want to surpass them,” said Alejandro Melchor III, deputy executive director of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)–Information and Communication Technology Office.

The country is on the right track in achieving growth targets outlined in the national information and communication technology (ICT) roadmap. The goal is to raise export revenue in BPO from $11 million this year to $25 million by 2016.

“We’re doing very well this year based on indications. We want to stretch our lead as the top in the world market. We have seen good indicators during the first half of 2012,” Melchor told reporters in the sidelines of a gathering with ICT stakeholders here.

Another priority, according to Melchor, is the healthcare information management, where the country is in the second rank in terms attracting emerging investments, adding the Philippine healthcare outsourcing segment grew by 172 percent in 2011 with the country having a good potential to draw investment of the estimated $65-billion industry.

“Our current share is growing very fast with 8 percent and we want to be number two in global share in healthcare. It is still in its infancy stage with only 4 percent of healthcare information management is being outsourced. We’re getting a big segment of that. We feel that the market is gravitating to Philippines over India,” Melchor explained.

The industry is also looking at outsourcing of human resource management, financing, and procurement and to prepare for this growth they are now helping provinces to create enabling environment through formation of local ICT councils, he said.

The government, in partnership with the private sector, has already formed 35 provincial and city ICT councils with the plan to form 15 more local multi-sectoral groups in the next two years.

“They will review the roadmap and figure out where the local area can improve but the most important is to get the involvement of other stakeholders,” Melchor said, referring to the function of the local body.

The formation of council is to prepare cities outside Manila for tremendous growth of the BPO sector. Melchor is confident the premier growth IT industry in the country will continue. (Leyte Samar Daily Express)