Exploring untapped markets could lift the BPO industry

By Ehda M. Dagooc (The Freeman) Updated January 20, 2012 12:00 AM

CEBU, Philippines - Touching base with untapped markets in outsourcing could be the country’s savior against the threat of the pending anti-outsourcing bill of the United States, which is seen to have major impact to the local Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry.

Willem Geert Lagemaat, chief executive officer (CEO) of multinational outsourcing firm Lighthouse IP Group, said that the feared impact of the US anti-outsourcing bill could be avoided if as early as now the country will already start looking for alternative markets.

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“There is a much broader market in outsourcing outside of the traditional markets like US,” said Lagemaat whose company is based in Netherlands and has outsourcing offices in other countries, including Cebu.

Asia for example, he said is a promising market for outsourcing, including other emerging continents such as South America, and Europe.

He said everybody is now looking at Asia, as one of the fast growing markets in the world. Outsourcing opportunities here is good.

House Bill (HB) No. 3596, the “Call Center and Consumers Protection Bill" was filed by Reps. Tim Bishop (Democrat, New York), David Mckinley (Republican, West Virginia) and Mike Michaud (Democrat, Texas) last December 7.

Under the bill, companies that have call centers overseas would be ineligible for grants and guaranteed loans from the federal government. It also proposes a $10,000 a day penalty on US call centers that fail to report its relocation to an offshore location within 60 days to the Labor department.

Also, call center operators will be required to identify their location. Callers will also be allowed to choose an operator who is based in the US.

Many American companies have been outsourcing their call center services to the Philippines and India in recent years, since wages here are much lower than in the US. The monthly salary of an entry-level call center worker is about P14,000-P20,000 ($325-$465).

Cebu on the other hand, was able to take a step ahead to cushion the negative effect of the proposed bill once signed into law in the US.

The Cebu Investment Promotions Center (CIPC) announced earlier that it has started to work hand in hand with the European Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (ECCP) to mount an aggressive promotional campaign to attract European firms to open up outsourcing offices in Cebu.

CIPC managing director Joel Mari S. Yu said, for Cebu, a number of European-based companies have already opened outsourcing offices here, with Cebu’s position as an emerged BPO destination in the world, the number is expected to rise in the coming months or years. (FREEMAN)