Israeli businessmen bullish on Philippine IT-BPM, food sectors

MANILA, Philippines - Israeli businessmen are seeking to further expand their presence in the Philippines and have cited food manufacturing and information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) industries as the most attractive areas for trade and investments.

Israel Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines (ICCP) president Itamar Gero said foreign investors view the Philippines as a convenient destination given the country’s competitive advantages such as skills and human resources, salary costs, business establishment and growth potential.

As far as IT-BPM is concerned, Gero said Manila has become an outsourcing destination for various IT services such as English technical support, back office services, transcription, animation, web design, software development and engineering.

He said an increasing number of international companies are choosing the Philippines as a base for such services due to the availability of quality personnel, culture, service attitude, and language skills of which about 96 percent speak English.

“The IT industry and business process management services have become the second largest source of income for the Philippine economy in recent years. According to official figures, the impact of these processes on the Philippine economy is no less dramatic,” Gero said.

“The IT industry and IT-based business services are expected to continue to grow significantly in the short to medium term by 2022, thus becoming the leading engine of the Philippine industry,” he added.

Another sector which the group sees as having a strong potential for attracting foreign businessmen is the food processing and manufacturing industry which it said has been growing at an impressive pace in recent years.

ICCP said the volume of food and beverage products produced in the Philippines reached $27.8 billion in 2015, with 90 percent of the production intended for domestic consumption and only 10 percent was for export.

“The food industry in the Philippines relies on agriculture which accounts for about 29 percent of the workforce and accounts for about 10 percent of the GDP,” the group said.

“Food industry in the Philippines is a growing industry and an important component in trade with Israel,” it added.