According to a senior analyst at the event, local call centers are projected to top the 2005 earnings of their Indian counterparts. Another visitor sees the same trend considering that the Philippine call center revenue grew by 300 percent over the last three years. An analyst from Australia believes that the Philippines could take the lead especially if the country boosted its attractiveness as an outsourcing location. But this could only happen, according to the foreign visitors, if the country would improve its telecommunications and other basic infrastructure. Currently, the Philippines is below the median as a location. But in terms of resources like the type of skills of the labor force, the cost of operations and the English-language proficiency of the workforce, the country is in a relatively high position, according to the same foreign analysts.
Foreign visitors said that the inflow of investment in information technology-enabled services could reach P20 billion in four to five years, with call centers being the key to this growth. The Philippines should make the global market more aware of its excellent education system, excellent language skills and the specific skills that the country’s call center agents excel in, to be able to corner a large portion of this global market. The government should also show its support in this sunrise industry by providing the necessary incentives and support to foreign investors, and international promotion or marketing.
e-Services Philippines is a trade show organized by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions to showcase the country’s competence in the call center industry. The event gathered around 10,000 local and foreign visitors.
In an annual BPO conference and exhibition organized by the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions or CITEM sponsored by the Philippine government, experts from the international community agreed that the country is considered a close alternative outsourcing destination, second only to India. The conference also cited fifteen top outsourcers from Europe: EDS, IBM, T-Systems, CSC, Atos Origin, CGE&Y, Accenture, Fujitsu, Capita, HP, SBS, Getronics, Logica, CMG and Unisys.
