The use of the abbreviation BPO is intended to make it familiar to the reader.  

I have time and again expressed that improving production and employment in agriculture is the key to the improvement of the economic and social conditions in the region.  

Such an advocacy does not place many other fields out of the picture.   It won't be all agriculture. There will be other standouts, although their impact on employment will be not as large as agriculture.

When we look at improving the conditions in which people live, we must assess our resources. When we do this carefully then we will notice a lot of possibilities.  

In today's column I would focus on one – Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).  

The O in BPO is “Outsourcing”. This situation exists when a company abroad (e.g. in the U.S. ) gets workers in other countries (e.g. in the Philippines ) to work and produce outputs without leaving their countries. This results in lowering the cost of labor (e.g. wage rates in call centers in the Philippines are less than 1/10 that in the U.S. ).  

There is a nationwide trend in BPO that we should be conscious of. Eastern Visayas can also take advantage of the possibilities presented by this trend.  

NEDA Director – General Romulo Neri projects that the BPO industry will grow by a whooping 15 percent this year. This is nearly triple the projected economic growth rate of the country.  

Citing call centers, he said that the demand for workers in call centers would reach 80, 000 this year up from 35, 000 in 2004.  

BPO also includes medical transcriptions and financial services thus the demand will be much higher.  

The infrastructures for this industry are already available in many parts of Region VIII, particularly in the cities and capital towns.  

Manpower is also abundant. In fact many have gone to Cebu and Manila and are now employed in BPO companies.  

Our educational institutions are also equipped (speech laboratories, IT equipment, etc.) to provide the needed support.  

In terms of buildings, there are several sites available in these cities and towns.  

Several contact center operators have even opted to build their own facilities rather than rent space in existing buildings. Among these operators are Teletech, Convergys, and People support.  

BPO? We should expect many of these companies to be in this region soon.