Asean firm cites Iloilo City's BPO boom
Iloilo City's booming Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector was cited by an economic think tank for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) region.
"BPO facilities are located mainly in Metro Manila and Cebu City. However, more of such facilities are being found in the smaller cities like Iloilo and Baguio," assessed Asean Briefing report about the country's growth topping its neighbors as published on its website May 9.
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Mayor Jed Patrick E. Mabilog hoped the citation will help strongly promote and globally sell Iloilo City as ideal investment destination.
He added that being a top BPO hotspot is a manifestation of the city's business-friendliness, conducive investment climate, and strong economic promotions in attracting major locators to settle and expand here.
The metropolis was recently recognized as an established hub for Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) operations by the Information and Communications Technology Office of Department of Science and Technology (DOST-ICTO) and IT-Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP).
The BPO industry is normally classified into the eight sub-sectors: contact centers, back office, knowledge processing services, data transcription, animation, software, engineering, and game developments.
"A consistent effort should also be made to promote the BPO sector as one of the Philippines' pillar industries. The public too needs to understand and support the industry by creating an environment that facilitates BPO careers for graduates," the business intelligence firm suggested.
The City Government is collaborating and working closely with Iloilo Federation for Information Technology (IFIT) composed of private sector and academe in responding to the needs of BPO industry.
IFIT executive director Joeven Tansi noted there are 12,000 BPO jobs available for applicants, adding to the current 20,000 employees working in 45 companies operating here.
IT-BPAP President Jose Mari Mercado said Iloilo has developed a good ecosystem to attract multinationals and BPOs. He added the next step is to develop the local ICT industry to motivate students to take up IT-related courses and capacity development programs supported by the industry to support the human resource requirements.
"The rise of the popularity of the Philippines as a BPO destination owes to its large English speaking workforce who are demographically young and whose wages are competitive in the BPO market. Additionally, the Philippines boasts a large degree of economic and political stability, which compliment government sponsored economic zones offering both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for investors," stated the Asean consulting company. (Iloilo City PIO)