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By RG Alama
November 13, 2008
Davao City -- Contrary to fears that a Barrack Obama presidency would result to protectionist policies that could kill the Business Processing Outsourcing sector in the country, Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Simeon Marfori said the effect would be otherwise.
Marfori cited the ongoing economic slowdown of the United States economy as a major reasons for the optimism of the BPO sector, where majority of the clients are United States companies. He said that cost-cutting is very essential in light of the major economic slowdown, and these Americans companies will outsource more of their non-core activities to other countries particularly the Philippines.
He said that American firms would likely focus on their core businesses back home and have those lower level jobs outsourced abroad. According to Marfori, it is not good business sense to employ over-qualified highly-paid personnel to do lower-level non-core jobs. Among these outsourced jobs are call center agents, transcriptionists, graphic designers, animators and content developers.
Obama during his campaign has said that he will end tax breaks for American companies who are outsourcing jobs overseas. As a Senator he was among those who legislated the Patriot Employer Act of 2007 that aims to reward American firms that provide jobs to many Americans by providing tax breaks. The act aims to stem the tide of outsourcing which is believed to have has rendered many Americans jobless.
Obama's ascension to the Presidency has been a source of concern among many Filipinos particularly those in the BPO sector which is considered as the country's sunshine industry, about 80% of the country's BPO clients are coming from the United States.
Davao City which is positioning itself as one of the Philippines IT hub and is considered as one of the top emerging BPO locations with a large pool of competent and highly-educated manpower and well-developed IT infrastructure. (PIA)
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