IT-BPO industry (Part II)

I have received several phone calls drawing my attention to a serious typo in my column regarding the economic footprint of the IT-BPO industry. Allow me to repeat the second paragraph of my column: “How things have changed. Just over a decade later, we’ve seen the exponential growth of this sector, making it one of the chief economic drivers in this country, currently employing 770,000 people with total revenue expected to reach $16 billion (not $6 billion) Today, the Philippines is the world’s leading call center destination, beating out India, while Manila was just named the world’s 3rd top BPO destination, according to Tholon’s 2013 survey.”

May I also take this opportunity to provide further information relative to BPO. The Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IT-BPAP) also pointed out that the direct employees are expected to exceed 900,000 and export revenues, (as I just stated) will reach $16 billion by the end of this year. They also further elaborated that the industry’s value added to the economy is very high since the industry does not require significant imports, unlike the electronics industry. From 2006 to 2012, the CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of IT-BPO was 25 percent. IT-BPO market as percentage of global offshore services market, in revenue terms was 9.5 percent in 2011. –Roberto R. Romulo (The Philippine Star)