The Philippines’ booming outsourcing industry has employed a million
people after growing almost tenfold in just over a decade, according to
the industry association.
Widely considered as second only
after India, the Philippine outsourcing industry is expected to earn 18
billion USD this year, AFP quoted Ppresident Jose Mari Mercado of the IT
and Business Process Association Philippines as saying.
He added
that the country targets 1.3 million employees in this sector by 2016,
with its revenues increasing to 25 billion USD.
The business
process outsourcing or BPO sector has emerged as a shining star of the
Philippine economy after posting just 1.5 billion USD in revenues with
103,500 employees in 2004, figures released by the industry group
showed.
This has helped provide better-paying jobs to a country
where 10 million people, about a tenth of the population, have
travelled overseas to seek employment.
For each person hired
directly by the industry, about 2.5 additional support jobs are also
generated, the association said.
The Philippines is
expanding into more sophisticated outsourced operations such as
financial services, software design, medical and legal transcription,
animation and gaming.
In 2012, the industry accounted for 5.6
percent of the country’s gross domestic product and the figure could
rise to 7.8 percent by 2016, said Rick Santos, chairman of CBRE
Philippines.-VNA