MANILA, Philippines ? Senator Manuel ?Mar? Roxas III wants to see more mergers and acquisitions in the local call center industry to widen flow of capital investments.

In his keynote address at the Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) conference Wednesday, Roxas said there are at least 200 small contact center operators in the Philippines that need better presence in getting projects here and abroad.

He said the industry should be able to help small players to expand their capacity in providing outsourced offshore services

Roxas noted that majority of call center firms in the country are multinational firms or affiliates of telecommunication firms while a small portion are call center providers with less than 200 people.

Some of these smaller firms are also owned by mostly Filipino entrepreneurs.

While larger contact center operators already enjoy some government tax incentives, smaller operators would also need the same incentives as well as capital to expand their services.

?Small contact centers need to attract venture capital and investments. They don?t have the scale to accommodate larger requirements but they can also address new markets,? Roxas said.

Roxas, who is chairman of the Senate committee on education, also said that he is pushing for teaching children from Grades 1 to 3 in the native tongue.

Citing studies, Roxas said children have better grasp of concepts when they are taught in Filipino. It also provides a level of comfort for children whose primary language is not English.

?By the time they have grasped basic concepts, it?ll be easier for them to learn in English. We essentially solve one problem of contact centers and that is finding workers who are able fluently speak in English,? Roxas said.

Reports from the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) showed that the hiring ratio for employees in the contact center industry is only less than 10 percent with much of the problem on English fluency.

CCAP has been working with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) to train near-hires. It is also working with different local government agencies particularly in provincial locations where contact center operations have expanded.