Davao has pool of workforce ready for BPO sector

DAVAO City is not only flying high with the growth of business processes outsourcing (BPO) companies but it also has a pool of workforce ready for the booming sector.

Based on the assessment of Concentrix, one of the largest BPO companies operating in the city, the labor pool at hand is one of the best in the country.

"The absorption rate of applicants is at seven percent, the highest in the country. Metro Manila and Cebu has an average of only three to four percent," Gerardo Dumael, Concentrix manager, told reporters on Wednesday.

On a larger scale, Dumael said similar figures can be applied with the BPO sector as a whole in Davao City.

"With such large pool, covering up to Digos and Kidapawan in the South and as far as Tagum and Davao Oriental, Davao City has big potential for the BPO sector," Dumael said.

Concentrix started operations in Davao City in 2006 with an initial workforce of 60. This ballooned to 280 by 2007, 490 in 2008.

"At present we have 900 workers as of 2009," Dumael said.

On Wednesday, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed optimism over the growth of the business processes outsourcing companies in Davao City, one of the "Next Wave Cities" in the country's information and communications technology sector.

Arroyo visited the Concentrix business processes outsourcing office at Damosa IT Park in Lanang.

The cyber corridor is one of the five development areas mapped out by the Arroyo administration in 2006 to spur economic growth and regional productivity.

Official data showed that there are more than 446,000 IT-BPO workers, from what started with only 2,400 employees in 2000 nationwide.

Revenues generated by the BPO industry in 2001 was pegged at only $0.02 billion, a far cry from last year's $7.3 billion earnings posted.

Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on February 8, 2010.