Local BPO Investors Seek More Incentives – ICC
July 11 – Homegrown business process outsourcing (BPO) investors are calling on the government to come up with better incentives, such as improved connectivity and security. Michael Cubos, president of the Innovation Council of Cebu (ICC), said that while the industry welcomes the retention of existing tax perks of the BPO sector, the government needs to offer more incentives for homegrown investors to ensure that the industry will continue to thrive.
Cubos said current incentives are foreigner-centric. He said that the government could also offer preferential incentives for Philippine investors in the IT-BPM sector, particularly in smaller towns and cities. The Department of Finance earlier said BPO firms will continue to enjoy a number of fiscal incentives to sustain the sector’s robust growth.
Senate’s Tax Reform Plan Will Raise Costs for BPO – IBPAP
July 12 – The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) said the Senate version of the first tax reform package will increase the cost of doing business process outsourcing (BPO) business in the Philippines once implemented. IBPAP president and CEO Rey Untal said the cost of doing BPO business in the Philippines will be 20% higher than it is in India.
The House version of the tax package, passed in May, retained the VAT exemption on the sale of services, which includes outsourcing services. Still, if the Senate version of the tax reform package is implemented, Untal said the gap between local costs and those in India would further widen.
Local Startups Confident They Can Improve Tholons Ranking – TechTalks
July 14 - Startup stakeholders in the Philippines have expressed confidence that the country will be able to raise its ranking in the Tholons Services Global Index, also known as the Global Outsourcing Index. Tina Amper of TechTalks.ph said the Philippines is on the right track in relation to the introduction of digital innovation, startup ecosystems, and digital transformations that Tholons now include in its determination of the global top outsourcing cities.
Amper and other startup stakeholders believe the standing of the Philippines will improve next year as the country has many programs in place to spur startup growth in appropriate technology.
Philippines Need to Brace for the Impact of AI – De la Salle
July 14 – Experts said artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and robotics are already here and the Philippines needs to brace for impact of these developments. Dr. Raymond Girard Tan, vice chancellor for research and innovation at De La Salle University, said the country must equip its citizens with the knowledge and tools to handle the challenges of these technological developments.
Department of Information and Communications Technology Undersecretary Monchito B. Ibrahim said that AI can enable workers in the business process outsourcing sector to move up the value chain to handle higher-skilled work as long as they are trained, because AI will take on the more menial work.
US Ambassador Says US BPO will stay in the Philippines
July 14 – US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim said the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the country will continue to do well despite worries that proposed Trump policies will curtail the sector’s growth.
Kim, speaking to members of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (Amcham) in Cebu said it was still too early to tell what impact US policies on outsourcing may have on the local BPO industry since these have not yet been implemented. However, the ambassador believes that much of the threat to the IT-BPO sector will come in the form of automation which can replace humans in the workplace, leading to loss of jobs.
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