IT-BPM sector revenues for ’13 seen hitting $16B

The Philippine Information Technology and Business Process Management sector (IT-BPM) expects to exceed targets this year with revenues seen growing by 21 percent to $16 billion.

Employment is likewise expected to increase by 23.5 percent to 960,000 by yearend, according to Jose Mari Mercado, president and CEO of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP).

In a briefing Monday on the sidelines of the International Outsourcing Summit (IOS) 2013, Mercado said the sector had initially projected a 19-percent increase in revenue and employment this year.

The better-than-expected numbers put the group on track to meeting its target revenue and employment of $25 billion and 1.3 million, respectively, by 2016.

At this size, the sector is expected to account for about 8 percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product.

According to Mercado, proof of this rising demand was seen during a mission in Japan, which generated 27 leads for Philippine companies.

Of these leads, five Japanese companies are already conducting their respective due diligence in preparation for either an investment or outsourcing of IT work.

He added that the Japanese companies are mainly interested in outsourcing IT infrastructure support and finance and accounting. The group, however, is pushing also for animation and gaming development.

The Philippines is deemed to be well-positioned among global IT-BM services providers in four key human resource indicators, namely scalability, experienced talent pool, quality of English accent and cultural affinity with the US, and size of graduate pool.

It also remains one of the most cost-competitive, and less-risky locations in the world for voice and IT-BPM services.

This thus makes the Philippines highly suitable to lead the region in marketing the Asean collectively as an IT-BPM hub, especially after the economies of its 10-member states are integrated under the so-called Asean Economic Community. Amy R. Remo