The recession has forced two major occurrences that impacted the Philippine economy. First off, one of the core reasons why the Philippine financial system has stayed afloat is because of the millions of dollar remittances sent monthly by a throng of Filipinos working abroad. Wave after wave of local workers decided to seek employment thousands of miles away from home because of better pay and improved working conditions not to mention the fact that because of strict government guidelines, employers abroad offer superior working benefits. The bad news is, because of the economic downturn, an enormous percentage of this dollar-generating crowd was forced to go home. Multinationals downsized and small and medium-sized businesses went bankrupt and closed down resulting in massive layoffs.
But, like they say, when a door shuts, another one opens. And because western-based companies are in need of some serious operational cost slashes, thanks to the ongoing trade and industry slump, outsourcing some of their business operations to countries with cheaper labor have become a business necessity. Fortuitously, the Philippines has some of the best untapped smart minds in the world and that fact has propelled the country from an almost zero to BPO hero.
In the past 10 years, this Southeast Asian paradise has become an important outsourcing destination. Now, the BPO Philippines industry has become a very vital offshore work outsourcing provider brought about by several factors:
- The government provides unabated support for IT investments, encouraging and offering generous incentives to foreign investors and BPO companies
- Filipinos are amazingly good in speaking neutral English, the kind that is needed in communicating with Americans, Australians, and Europeans. Practically everyone in the country understands and knows how to speak the language. The locals are known to have this very strong affinity to Americans, probably stemming back from the Japanese Liberation during World War II.
- A large pool of graduates in the country is experts in the filled of ICT. Most Filipinos are knowledgeable in the field of ICT
- There is a vast field of high quality locations in the country which can be potential BPO Philippines headquarters and telecommunication infrastructure is dependable and rationally-priced
Although the current revenues generated by Philippine BPOs do not match the remittances send by OFWs, the income is still a welcome relief from the crash in overseas employment and its monetary benefits. Just to be aware of the figures, in 2009, the transfer of funds sent by Filipino global workers totaled $17.35 billion while BPO earnings on the same year reached a little bit over $10 billion.









