RP could be a global outsourcing hub

By Beth Day Romulo

IN her speech before the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ABAC) at the Shangri-La Mactan in Cebu last week President Arroyo described her vision of the Philippines as a pre-eminent business processing outsourcing (BPO) hub in the world. Already 200,000 Filipinos are employed in over 100 companies engaged in outsourcing and call centers, compared to 2,000 employed in only 4 companies in 2003. The president views a concerted thrust to gain world status in outsourcing as a promising way to reduce unemployment and earn foreign exchange. She pointed out the Philippines "compelling advantages’’ as a competitor for this business: Its location, English-speaking labor force, level of education and culture of service. To accelerate the Philippines competitiveness she ordered Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila and Cesar Bautista, who chairs the private/public task force, to create a Master Plan on ways to become more internationally competitive. She also announced a R500-million scholarship fund for training Filipinos who wish to work with BPO companies. Philippine Chairman of ABAC and presidential adviser on International Competitiveness, Ambassador Roberto Romulo, welcomed the President’s strong advocacy for Philippine BPO competitiveness. "This is a landmark event because the President acknowledges in this globalizing world we have to try to achieve to be better than we are today.’’ Since the President’s speech in Cebu, the Ayala Corporation has announced plans to join the trend and open more call centers in the Philippines.

The President also called for regional cooperation on energy security and anti-terrorism measures and pushed for a global convention on counter-terrorism to "advance teamwork in the fight against evil.’’ President Arroyo said the Philippines could not face economic or security threats alone and called for close cooperation with other countries.

She also called upon developed countries to assist developing nations in improving their capability to fight terrorism, by sharing information, training operations, and technology.

At the same conference, former President Fidel Ramos, who is a member of the Eminent Persons Group tasked to create an Asean charter, suggested that since the WTO has not been able to finalize its global trade agreement that Asia Pacific countries might develop their own free trade area in Asia. This idea was challenged by Brunei’s Timothy Ong, chairman of the Asia Inc. Forum, who maintained that it would change the character of APEC into a negotiation forum, from its present voluntary, nonbinding structure.

Chairman Romulo said that the idea "will definitely be an option that will be explored,’’ if the WTO talks collapse.

ABAC, which was created in 1995 to advise APEC members on business sector needs, called for the resumption of trade talks and ABAC Chairman Hoang Vang Dung has written APEC leaders to urge them to resume trade negotiations since suspension of negotiations "is of deep concern for business and consumers in the Asia Pacific’’ and will slow economic growth. ABAC will send representatives to Geneva in September to press European business to resume trade negotiations. But if the trade talks still fail "then we have to look at’’ the idea of a free trade area in the Asia Pacific.

Source: MB.com
By Beth Day Romulo