Zambo can be best source of multi-lingual BPO, says expert

ZAMBOANGA City's new branding "Asia's Latin City" is a very unique positioning that can make the city the best resource for multi-lingual business process outsourcing (BPO) focusing on Spanish language, now considered a high growth segment, an information and communications technology (ICT) expert said.

"The positioning that you're taking, the Latin city of Asia is really going to click," said Alejandro Melchor III, deputy executive director of the Information Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology (ICTO-DOST).

Melchor was here for the three-day 2012 Zampen ICT Conference and Trade Exhibit. The conference and trade exhibit started on Wednesday and ended Friday.

He discussed about the ICT industry, particularly the Information Technology Business Process Outsourcing (ITBPO) market and in effect gave numerous tips on how this city can promote the branding "to grab a lot of outsourcing work that might otherwise go elsewhere."

Melchor said the multi-lingual BPO is an emerging trend in the industry as a lot of companies are now thinking of setting up multi-lingual operations and that four of the biggest companies have selected the Philippines as the best location in the world to establish multi-lingual BPO operations.

Spanish language BPO is a high growth segment and that there is a great deal of interest in BPO in Latin America, according to Melchor.

"They (Latin America) want to capture the Spanish language BPO. They know it is a high growth sector not only the Hispanic and Latin Community in North America and Central America but also in Latin America, Spain and Spanish colonies," he said.

He expressed confidence that the Philippines can actually outdo the Latin American countries when it comes to Spanish language BPO.

He said most countries in the world are actually starting to outsource that instead of opening up facilities in different countries with different languages, the companies are bent on establishing multi-lingual BPO centers.

Melchor added that the country should undertake systematic programs to train people in English and Spanish.

The ICTO-DOST will help market not only the Philippines but the next wave cities, among them Zamboanga, stressing "you have a wonderful positioning that is very easy for us to help market you," he said.

Zamboanga's branding "Asia's Latin City" is anchored on the fact that Zamboanga is the only city in the Philippines and the entire Asia where the majority of the population speaks in a Spanish derivative language called 'chabacano'. (Bong Garcia)