‘Kabayan’ Noli vouches for health of call-center industry

As far as the call-center industry is concerned, the current global financial crisis is not something to worry about.

Vice President Noli de Castro gave the assurance that prospects of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, or call centers, remain bright because of the solid fundamentals of the country’s BPO sector.

“The Philippines has enough supply of educated, English-speaking labor force because Filipino families give education an outmost importance,” de Castro said during the inauguration of the EXL Service Facility at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City on Thursday.

“We have a steady flow of graduates from universities, colleges, and technical institutions,” de Castro, also the Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers, said.

The Vice President noted that there are other locations outside Metro Manila that can effectively host business process outsourcing centers.

“We know that if we can encourage more locators, we will also be able to generate productive employment for our people and encourage the growth of support industries,” he said,

EXL recently entered the Philippines investing $8 million in BPO to set up a world-class state-of-the-art facility that will generate around 1,500 new jobs in the next 12 months.

The firm is a new addition to leading global names in the BPO industry that are coming to the Philippines to set up their operations.

The Vice President also said that it is plus for the Philipines that the new breed of Filipino workers is widely familiar with the latest technology.

“Many first-time visitors to the Philippines marvel at the extent by which cellular phones, computers, wi-Fi hotspots, and internet cafés have penetrated the lifestyle of our young,” he said.

Financial analyst Astro del Castillo earlier told The Manila Times in a phone interview that the US recession will not kill the call-center industry in the country, saying that BPOs are not solely dependent on America since there are European- and Asian-owned BPO companies. –Llanesca T. Panti, Reporter, Manila Times