Cebu is 8th of 100 BPO emerged destinations worldwide—report

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu has taken a step higher in terms of global ranking as preferred Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) investment destination in the world.

Cebu is in the eighth spot of the Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations Report for 2013 of Tholons, a global full-services strategic and advisory firm for global outsourcing and research.

Tholon’s report was released yesterday through the Cebu Investment and Promotions Center (CIPC).

Last year, Tholons listed Cebu as the ninth emerged destination for business process outsourcing (BPO) globally.

According to the report, labor availability and significantly, its quality of work force, are among the criteria in selecting these top destinations.

The advisory firm believes that one of the best value propositions of an outsourcing destination is its people.

CIPC managing director Joel Mari S. Yu said in an interview yesterday, that there is no doubt Cebu could reach into higher ranking in the next couple of years, provided that the province will continue to solve the problem of human resource supply.

“We are getting better and better. We can even go higher to number six or number five in short term. Our only constraint is the availability of people. Attracting investments is not a problem, we are already in the map,” Yu said.

Business process outsourcing has definitely become a huge part of the economy in Cebu and Cebu City in particular, and outsourcing in Cebu is only expected to grow over the next several years.

Yu said foreign businesses are attracted to Cebu for a lot of reasons.

Since Cebu is an IT and academic hub in the Southern Philippines, Cebuano workers are appealing because many of them can perform complex business tasks.

Close to 100,000 people are now employed in the business process outsourcing industry in Cebu.

With an average of 24,000 new graduates from the different colleges and universities in Cebu each year, more and more skilled young people sign up for work in outsourcing companies and continue to build the reputation of Cebu as a leading destination for business process outsourcing.

Cebu continues to have challenges to face before it can become the number one business process outsourcing destination, especially because the competition in many surrounding areas of Asia is fierce.

Seven cities in the Philippines have made it to the top 100 list of Tholons this year.

These are Baguio City, Bacolod City, Iloilo City, Sta Rosa City, Davao City, Metro Manila, and Cebu.

Last year, there are only five in the list.

In an earlier interview, Tholons managing director for South East Asia Jonathan Defensor De Luzuriaga said that there is a need for Cebu to find out its real niche in the BPO industry, thus a scientific study must be done.

“Cebu needs direction in hitting the growing BPO market. I am surprised of the jobs done here in BPO sector, not only in voice, but in more complex jobs like animation, graphic design, hardware and software development,” Luzuriaga said.

In 2011, Cebu had only a total of 75 thousand people working in the BPO/ICT sector, about 11 thousand were added to the workforce last year by the new companies that opened here, while about five thousand people got their jobs via the expansion of existing BPO firms.

The most significant development and is expected to strengthen this year, is the entry of high-value BPO firms to Cebu, which are not only needing “English fluent” people, but professionals from across the board.

This time, Yu said Cebu will be expecting outsourcing firms that do not only serve the huge United States market, or the voice-dominant service, but the higher form of outsourcing which will serve to other continents around the world, such as Japan, Singapore, Great Britain, Australia, Europe, among others.

With this, he said the skills requirement is not just English proficiency.

Non-voice BPO requires people from across professions, like lawyers, accountants, teachers, and creatives.— (FREEMAN)