Philippines’ BPO industry on track to meeting employment target

MANILA – The country’s information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) industry is on track to hit its 1.21 million employment target this year.

Information Business Processing Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) president Jose Mari Mercado told reporters on Tuesday that with the expansion of IT-BPO companies in the country, the industry will be able to hit its target by end of this year.

“It is also possible to top that figure,” said Mercado.

The IT-BPO industry closed 2014 employing 1.03 personnel from 900,000 in 2013.

Since March this year, BPO companies in the country that have been expanding include Telus, Startek, Convergys, and Teleperformance.

IBPAP targets to complete its Vision 2020 Roadmap by middle of the third quarter this year, according to Mercado.

The new roadmap expands the 2016 industry roadmap of IT-BPO sector which aims to study the market trends in 2020 and beyond.

“We want to rationalize that growth projection base on what the global projection is going to be,” he said.

He mentioned that the country’s IT-BPO industry eyes to grow by 12 to 15 percent annually. But if the global growth projection will be slower, the local sector should adjust its growth forecast.

“We want to hit that. We would like to continue doing that. But as I said, part why there’s a roadmap is because we want to see the global projection would really like,” Mercado said.

“We want to be realistic with our projections,” he added. –Philippines News Agency