MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines will have to make more calls for improvements should it want to advance past global information technology-business process outsourcing (IT-BPO) powerhouse India.
Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) Property Consultants (India) chief operating officer and international director Ramesh Nair said yesterday the Philippines should develop more cities outside Metro Manila as IT-BPO hubs to further strengthen its hold as an investment destination for IT and outsourcing companies.
Nair sees Metro Manila as the only major IT-BPO magnet of the Philippines while India has several which include Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai.
He said it would be in the hands of the government on how to make these non-metro markets attractive IT-BPO hubs for both local and foreign investors.
Initially, Nair urged the government to build a high-speed and efficient transport system going to and within these new markets.
Once such transport infrastructure is in place, he said land should be made available for development with subsidized rates.
“Government should give subsidized rates for first movers. If you could get Google for example, then go all out and try offering them with big discounts on real estate. Once you get a magnet name like that then people will come in. In IT, whenever one big company comes, several others will follow,” Nair said.
“But once these businesses come in, you need to make sure ease of doing business is well taken care off,” he added.
Global real estate services firm JLL said India and Philippines stand head-and-shoulders above the rest of the world as the dominant players in the BPO sector as it continues to drive economic growth in both countries.
Nair said the desired market that come most after the Indian market among investors is the Philippines.
“In the overall Asia outsourcing market place, I would say Philippines is the second market which comes most to financial services clients because of obvious reasons (like) your supremacy in the contact industry, your English speaking graduates, and affinity towards American (culture),” he said.
“We also heard countries like Vietnam in the list and Malaysia as well. We don’t see many other countries coming in because of language barriers,” Nair added.