BPO industry should be supported with infrastructure, tax breaks — exec

The Philippines may be at or near the top of the global business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, but it needs to adapt—and to be supported by infrastructure and incentives—to stay there, an industry executive said Monday. Vikas Bhalla, executive vice president for outsourcing and transformation services provider EXL, said in a panel discussion at the International Outsourcing Summit in Makati on Monday that "incentives, like tax breaks, will kick-start the industry to make it competitive in the global market." "But investments should be supported by infrastructure," he said, adding the government plays a very important role. The ongoing three-day international summit is attended by industry executives from 17 countries: Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Colombia, Denmark, Greece, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam and the Philippines. Bhalla added that the Philippines should also consider branching out to multilingual BPO to sustain growth, including the Chinese market. "There is tremendous potential in those markets," he said. The Philippine BPO industry also needs to continue tapping the financial and healthcare services, especially with the aging world population. "The Philippines has a demographic edge here," Bhalla said, referring to the country's young workforce. The Philippine IT-BPO Road Map 2011-2016 suggests that industry revenues could reach $25 billion in 2016—a 10-percent share of the global market—if it accelerates its talent development initiatives and gets more government support. The roadmap also projects that the local industry could employ as many as 1.3 million and account for 9 percent of gross domestic product. — BM, GMA News