RP BPO industry forecast to grow $12.4B in 2010

By Alexander Villafania, INQ7.net

The Philippine business process outsourcing industry is set to grow to 12.4 billion US dollars by 2010, slightly higher than previous forecasts of 10 billion US dollars, according to a joint forecast from the Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines, the Bureau of Investments, and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology.

In their new forecast, the average revenue growth rate is about 30 percent starting this year.

The leading BPO services for the next four years are back office, medical and legal transcription, all with annual overall growth rates of 50 to 80 percent.

The joint forecast expects the number of new jobs created to reach 303,000, or another 30 percent annual growth rate, by 2010, starting this year. By 2010, the total Philippine BPO workforce will reach 1.1 million.

For the rest of 2006, the forecast is 3.78 billion US dollars in total revenues, or a 52 percent growth rate.

Meanwhile the BPO industry as a whole is expected to generate 103,000 jobs by the end of 2006, a 44 percent increase from the previous year.

The year 2005 was a turning point in the industry as it grew 137 percent or 2.5 billion US dollars in revenues versus one billion US dollars in 2004.

Last year also saw a 53 percent increase in BPO workforce or 81,000 new jobs generated, compared to 30,500 in 2004