Philippines Is Now No. 1 In BPO

After challenging India for the top position for several years, the Philippines is now the world leader in business support functions like shares services and business process outsourcing, according to the latest reports and trends analysis. The country overtook India in these categories last year, according to IBM's Latest Global Locations Trend Annual Report (Pages 6-7), released recently in New York.

India now ranks No. 2, the first time it was not in the leading position for these activities, according to the IBM report, launched in October but made available online last month. The IBM report said the Philippines offered a similarly attractive business environment for international business support functions as India. Unlike India's BPO hot spots, however, labor costs here have not increased as much.

On Thursday (December 2), the Contract Center Association of the Philippines said the country had become the call center of the world, with around 350,000 Filipinos
working in call centers against India's 330,000-strong workforce. Revenues from the country's call center industry are also expected to reach $5.7 billion this year, higher than India's $5.5 billion, the CCAP said.

The call centre industry, which provides so-called "voice" services like customer support and sales, is part of the BPO industry. Call centers make up 70 per cent of the BPO industry in the Philippines. Currently, there are 600,000 Filipinos employed in the country's BPO industry, according to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines.