Palace confident American BPOs will stay in Philippines

MALACAÑANG on Monday remained confident that American businessmen would not pull out their respective business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in the Philippines should United States (US) President-elect Donald Trump implement “retribution” policy against US companies still operating offshore.

In a statement, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Trump’s warning on US firms that continue to outsource their operations and services “is not a policy set in stone.”

“We cannot speculate on the future of American BPOs in the Philippines until President-elect Trump takes his oath of office and spells out his policies,” Andanar said.

In a series of tweets on Sunday, Trump threatened “retribution or consequences” for companies that operate out of the US, as well as a 35 percent tariff on their goods sold back to the US.

Andanar, however, cited that when US President Barack Obama had issued a similar appeal to American BPOs to conduct their operations back in the US, his call “fell on deaf ears.”

He then stressed that American business firms would like to stay in the Philippines because of its “more viable” business operations.

“American BPOs stayed in the Philippines because it is more viable to do business here. They would have less operating expenses. In the US, workers are paid per hour. In the Philippines, workers are paid per day,” Andanar said.

Andanar also noted that the Duterte administration is planning to have a shift in the structure of the workforce of the Information Technology-BPO sector.

To do so, he said the government included in its 10-point agenda the investment in human capital development, including match skills and training; and promotion of science, technology and the creative arts to enhance innovation and creative capacity.

“It is expected that the sector will cater to more complicated requirements as the industry plans to climb the value chain from the traditional voice and IT services to animation, game development and healthcare information,” Andanar said. “We hope we can capitalize on this where the Philippines has a competitive advantage,” he added.

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