042906: Solution provider mulls RP reg'l hub

 

 

By BERNIE CAHILES–MAGKILAT Paypal Asia Services Ltd., a global leader in online payment solutions provider with over 86.6 million users worldwide, is set to establish its regional operating headquarters in the country. Special Trade Representative (STR) Ma. Roseni Mendoza-Alvero of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in Silicon Valley (PTIC-Silicon Valley) said that Paypal, an eBay company, is banking on the Philippines’ competitive edge in rendering information and communication technology-enabled services to international companies. Alvero said that Paypal has proposed to manage its own general administration and planning, business planning and coordination, data processing and development and customer service to include call center operations. At present this work is being done in the Philippines by some 600 Filipino workers through Paypal’ s registered outsource providers. The company is now finalizing registration procedures with the Board of Investments. Paypal will initially invest 0,000 for its project at the start of its operations. Paypal’s investment in the Philippines was one of the successful fruits of President Arroyo’s visit to the United States in 18 November 2004. The President, through a meeting organized by PTIC-Silicon Valley, discussed with eBay President/CEO Meg Whitman the competitive advantages of the Philippines as an outsourcing destination. "More than just operating an auction site in the Philippines, the President encouraged eBay and its affiliated companies, including Paypal, to consider the Philippines as an e-services, logistics and distribution hub for its Southeast Asian operations," Trade and Industry Secretary Peter B. Favila said. An eBay company, Paypal is available in 56 countries and regions and is widely used by buyers and sellers on eBay to securely send and receive payments online, built on a system of existing infrastructures of financial institutions. Paypal is joining the growing number of multinational companies that has been attracted to invest in the Philippines. It is estimated that 112,000 people are now working in call centers in the Philippines, bringing in .12 billion in revenues this year. This is a sharp increase from 2000 when call centers employed just 2,400 people and earned million. The Philippines boasts cost-competitive, highlyskilled, readily-available labor with low overhead and a strategic location, easily accessible to major Asian cities and the US West Coast. Another advantage, which the Philippines also offers superior skills in English and its closer affinity to Western culture. The Philippines hopes to capture about five percent of business process outsourcing globally by 2010, amounting to as infrastructure and boost the quality of the labor supply particularly in the area of English language. To remedy this, Manila has improved the quality of English instruction and in 2003, launched a program where colleges will integrate special English courses "for international business," in their curricula. The Philippine’s new thrust is to expand BPO operations to other major cities in the country such as Cebu City and Davao City where salaries and costs are lower and where unemployment is more serious. To encourage this trend, the government is also making sure that prospective host cities can meet the requirements in regard to sufficient power supplies, telecommunications infrastructure and fiber optic facilities. They are also expanding the industry to higher-level information technology sectors like software development, engineering design, computer graphics and animation. (BCM)

 

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