PH BPO sector growth may soon overtake OFW remittances

The Philippines' business process outsourcing (BPO) sector may soon overtake overseas Filipino workers (OFW) remittances in terms of growth, the head of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said.

"The growth rate only in the BPO sector is projected at 10% at its minimum, but we are pushing it might be achievable at 15% growth. That sector might even overtake OFW remittances very soon," DICT Sec. Ivan John Uy said in an economic briefing in Singapore Wednesday.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., along with other government officials, held state visits to Indonesia and Singapore to discuss various matters, including inviting more foreign investments to the Philippines to help in the country's economic recovery.

Uy noted that the Philippines remains one of the top destinations for BPO firms. The sector contributed $29 billion to the Philippine economy last year and has generated over one million jobs, he said.

"We project that in the next few years, we will be hitting an additional one million jobs," Uy added.

In June, the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines said the industry recorded $29.49 billion in revenues in 2021, which was a 10.6% increase from the previous year.

Meanwhile, personal remittances in 2021 hit $34.88 billion, up by 5.1% over the previous year. However, this was slightly lower than the 6% target of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The DICT official said the country is ready to supply BPO companies with a talented digital workforce as the department continuously rolls out training programs to upgrade the digital skills of Filpino workers to meet the demands of the industry.

BSP Governor Felipe Medalla also expressed optimism over the country's BPO sector.

Industry stakeholders are only pushing for more flexibility in terms of tax incentives, which can easily help them grow by 12%, he said.

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