Business process outsourcing player sees recession benefitting industry in RP

By Ronilo Pamonag Updated March 05, 2009 12:00 AM

ILOILO CITY, Philippines – As companies abroad continue to lay off workers and even close shop, the country’s business process outsourcing (BPO) industry stands to benefit from this situation, a top BPO executive said.

“With recession comes the pressure on companies to reduce costs, and they look for opportunities to outsource business that they are doing in high cost countries like US, Australia, UK, Canada, New Zealand and move those jobs to the Philippines,” Teletech country head Maulik Parekh told reporters during yesterday’s inauguration of the Teletech Iloilo Delivery Center at SM City Iloilo.

With 23,000 employees in the Philippines, Teletech is among the biggest BPO companies in the country. It hopes to reach the 25,000-mark by the end of the year as Parekh announced they would be hiring an additional 2,000 call center agents this year.

With declining sales caused by the global financial crisis, companies abroad continue to lay off workers to cut costs. This, Parekh said, is a good sign for workers fluent in the English language.

In a bid to cut costs, he said foreign companies are looking at foreign shores for cheap labor outsourcing business processes to developing countries.

However, he added the global economic downturn has likewise negatively affected the BPO industry.

Although the industry will continue to expand, he said it will not be as fast as in the past three years.

At the present, the country’s eight-year-old BPO industry employs about 400,000 nationwide.