CEBU CITY, Philippines - From number four last year, Cebu City went to number one among the 50 emerging outsourcing cities worldwide in an international survey.
That ranking was based on a study conducted by industry publication Global Services and investment advisory firm Tholons for 2008.
Following Cebu City in the second and third spots are Shanghai and Beijing, both from the People's Republic of China.
Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam ranked fourth place, while the city of Krakov in Poland landed on fifth place.
“Our position last year (being number 4) helped a lot in selling Cebu to more companies,” said Joel Mari Yu, managing director of Cebu Investment Promotions Center (CIPC).
Yu said the global financial crisis worked to the advantage of Cebu City, which continues to attract big names in the business outsourcing (BPO) industry.
He said top companies in India such as Tata and HCL Technologies will soon open satellite offices in the city.
Aside from Cebu City, the cities of Pasig, Quezon, Mandaluyong made it to the top 50 list.
Pasig City ranked 15th, Quezon City was in 21st spot while Mandaluyong City landed on the 45th slot.
Meanwhile, Yu said CIPC records show that about 22 call center companies and 36 non-voice companies in Cebu offer content and medical transcription services among others.
The industry employs close to 50,000 workers, said Yu.
The study, which also listed the cities of Pasig, Quezon and Mandaluyong in the top 50 list, identified six general categories which determine the ranking of the cities.
These are scale and quality of workforce, business catalyst, cost effectiveness, infrastructure and infrastructure support, risk profile and quality of life.
“When firms in the US becomes distressed, the impetus to become competitive is getting bigger and bigger,” Yu said.
By locating to Cebu, a call center company can reduce cost by as much as 90 percent, Yu said.
“Even if they say that power cost in Cebu is expensive, it only takes a fraction of the operational cost of the company. The biggest is manpower (labor cost),” he added.
Yu credits the Japanese for persuading him to move Cebu as an IT hub.
“Even before the call centers came (in 2002 and 2003), Japanese companies such as Jump, Dash and Tsuneishi have come here (2001). They mostly provide engineering services,” Yu said.
With Cebu ranking first, it is now moving to higher level, more complicated and complex BPO services, said Bonifacio Belen, executive director of Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology.
“The companies already saw that Cebu has a critical mass of human resource who can render more complicated and complex services,” Belen said.
From being an emerging destination, Yu said Cebu is envisioned to become a fully-developed outsourcing destination next year.
Worldwide, there are only eight fully-developed outsourcing destinations. Makati City is one of them.
“A fully developed destination has a critical mass of workforce. In Cebu, we only have less than 50,00 workers. Makati has 100,000. Entire Metro Manila has 200,000.”
Yu said infrastructure, quality and quantity of workforce and peace and order situation still needs to be improved to make Cebu a fully-developed outsourcing destination.
With the positive performance of the ICT industry, the number of buildings catering to ICT companies is expected to increase as well.
Aside from Asiatown Information Technology Park, Robinland Inc. is currently building the Robinland Business Center at the back of Cebu Doctor's University in North Reclamation Area (NRA).
A P500-million building called Qimonda IT Center is also being developed in a five-hectare property at the NRA.
Gross leasable area is around 22,000 square meters and will house BPO companies retail stores and alfresco dining.
It is being developed by the Go family, the owner of Ricor Mills.
from:
INQUIRER Global Nation
link:
Cebu is top BPO site: study - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
Cebu- top bpo hub worldwide!
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