Philippines aims for bigger share of BPO market

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine outsourcing companies say they are aiming to snag up to 10 percent of the $270 billion global industry by 2016 and are focusing on training more workers to keep up with demand.

The Business Processing Association of the Philippines says the country is now the world’s top supplier of call center operators and other voice services. It accounts for up to 7 percent of the overall market that provides banking, transcription, engineering, and other services to overseas clients — a far second to India’s 51 percent share.

Association chairman Alfredo Ayala said Tuesday the Philippines hopes to raise the number of workers from the current 600,000 to 1.3 million and to grow revenues from $11 billion this year to $25 billion by 2016.