Sunday, August 31, 2008 [ sunstar.com.ph ]
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- With the growth of its call centers at 52 percent in the past three years and over 3.6 billion dollars in estimated revenue, the Philippines is now the third outsourcing destination in the world and with this the potential benefit for the Pampanga information technology (IT) sector.
Commissioner Monchito Ibrahim of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) issued this statement.
The commissioner explained that the country is the third, aside from China and India, as favorite destinations of IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) investors.
This, he said, was the result of the increasing number of manpower and the relatively low cost of production expenses in the Philippines.
In a report conducted by McKinsey Global Institute and in the Watson Wyatt 2005/06 report, the Philippines ranked second, next to India, in the hourly basis index on labor cost to employer.
The Philippines was followed by China and nearby Malaysia.
Ibrahim said the benefit of the new development translates to new job opportunities in the field of IT.
The areas of IT that are expected to need considerable amount of manpower are the call center sector, business processing, software development, animation and gaming, engineering and design process.
However, the CICT said Pampanga would need to address some issues that could directly affect development of IT in the province like the need to recruit over one million new people into the industry to reach 10 percent market share.
There is also the high percentage of top talents in emerging areas outbound to other markets (like nurses, engineering, and accountants) that do not necessarily fit the need of the market. Also, the mismatch in location density between providers and labor and the smaller labor pools that are not tapped
"Clear steps should be undertaken by local governments here to keep up with the emerging needs and demands of the IT sector," Ibrahim added. (IOF)
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