MANILA – It’s more fun to outsource in the Philippines because of lower labor costs and bright young talents, according to an IT research company.
"The daily minimum wage is set to approximately $10 per day, making it far cheaper to outsource in the Philippines. As such, Filipino salaries are but a fraction of their western counterparts," Lauro Vives, chief analyst at XMG Global, said.
Based on a global study, Indian professionals are, on average, paid 37 percent higher than their Filipino counterparts.
Another cost-reduction factor for business process outsourcing is the fewer number of legal holidays, Vives said.
The Philippines has 18 holidays a year, compared with India’s 33.
"Lower business costs translate directly into higher business profits; let’s face it! The Philippines remains a less expensive choice. The typical operating costs of a BPO company in the Philippines results in average savings of $15,000 to $22,000 per annum," Vives said.
The Philippines also has plenty of economics zones, numbering 248 locations that give opportunities for investments, and locating business operations.
Besides lower labor costs, the country’s workforce is highly-skilled and competent, possessing a world-class education in IT and competitive infrastructure backed by several multinational companies.
Country estimations project 440,000 graduates for 2012-2013. Of that total, 50,000 are IT graduates.
Despite its advantages, the Philippines however lacks multilingual talent, Vives said.
"An estimate of over than 6,000 multi-linguals in 2011 far exceeds labor market projections. Last year, with insights and help from XMG Global, a tie-up between the Board of Investments and IBM was formed to implement programs to enhance the capabilities of multilingual talent in general, but more particularly in the BPO sector in languages other than English," he said.
"This effort will play a crucial role to hit the industry’s goal of generating $25 billion in revenue by year 2016. This is yet another example of government and business working in concert to achieve a common goal," he added.
As of last year, the BPO industry employed over 640,000 people directly and 1.3 million indirectly, generating $11 billion in revenues, equivalent to five percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product.
source: interaksyon.com
