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Economy

Call Center Outsourcing, A New Philippines Success Story

Second only to India in terms of scale, the Philippines' customer service outsourcing industry in is growing, offering well-educated English speakers willing to work the night shift.

A job at a call center can pay $400 a month in the Philippines
A job at a call center can pay $400 a month in the Philippines
Jofelle Tesorio and Ariel Carlos

MANILA — The Philippines is increasingly the new destination of choice for international companies wanting to outsource their call centers.

In a room lined with rows of computers, everyone here is wearing a headset and is busy answering phone calls from other parts of the globe, working all night long while everybody else is asleep.

Jana Kleibert, a lecturer from the University of Amsterdam, explains the advantage of using Filipino call centers. "The main attraction lies in the fact that there is a very large talented work force that is English-speaking — and English-speaking with an accent that is very understandable, especially to North Americans," she says. "The second thing is the work force is also well educated, which makes it easier to transfer service-based tasks. And there's a cultural affinity with North America that also helps in communicating and performing customer services."

According to The Wall Street Journal, Philippine outsourcing is second only to India in terms of scale. A story in the newspaper recently noted that outsourcers there have hired their one millionth employee after emerging as a new industry 10 years ago. The business generated $16 billion in revenue last year, or 6% of the national GDP.

Put another way, the call-center industry in the Philippines is now the third-largest dollar earner after tourism and remittances and is able to offer salaries of at least $400 a month.

Maria Concepcion Andres, 24, is a communications graduate who joined the call-center industry four years ago. "To be quite honest, it's really for the pay," she says. "From what I'd experienced before with local jobs, they give you a very low salary, and the benefits are not very competitive. Foreign companies that are based here give better benefits, so I prefer to work for them than for local companies."


Photo: Philippines Call Center Services

But it comes with a great deal of stress, says Louie Delostrico, another call-center worker. "First of all, this means sleeping during daytime because you have to work during nighttime," she says. "And then there are the customers themselves, because a lot of them are irate. You need a lot of patience, especially when a customer is swearing at you, using profane language."

There are health consequences, says Leian Marasigan, a researcher on labor issues at the University of the Philippines. "It's the nature of the work," Marasigan says. "You answer calls all the time. There are adverse health impacts — on the throat, for example — and then of course, there's the stress of dealing with angry customers most of the time because this is customer service."

One advertisement from a leading call-center company describes its workers as a new breed of heroes for sacrificing their family and social lives to contribute to the country's economy and their families' welfare.

Unusual working hours means having fun at strange times of the day. It's 9 a.m. and Rory Zachs has just finished bowling after work with his colleagues. "I come to work at 10 p.m.," he says. "I stay all night like everybody else and work very hard. But if you don't mind I'm going to cut this discussion short now — because I'm going to go to sleep."

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Economy

The West Has An Answer To China's New Silk Road — With A Lift From The Gulf

The U.S. and Europe are seeking to rival China by launching a huge joint project. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States will also play a key role – because the battle for world domination is not being fought on China’s doorstep, but in the Middle East.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Indian Prime Minister Narendra and U.S. President Joe Biden shaking hands during PGII & India-Middle East-Europe Economics Corridor event at the G20 Summit on Sept. 9 in New Delhi

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Indian Prime Minister Narendra and U.S. President Joe Biden during PGII & India-Middle East-Europe Economics Corridor event at the G20 Summit on Sept. 9 in New Delhi

Daniel-Dylan Böhmer

-Analysis-

BERLIN — When world leaders are so keen to emphasize the importance of a project, we may well be skeptical. “This is a big deal, a really big deal,” declared U.S. President Joe Biden earlier this month.

The "big deal" he's talking about is a new trade and infrastructure corridor planned to be built between India, the Middle East and Europe.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the project as a “beacon of cooperation, innovation and shared progress,” while President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen called it a “green and digital bridge across continents and civilizations."

The corridor will consist of improved railway networks, shipping ports and submarine cables. It is not only India, the U.S. and Europe that are investing in it – they are also working together on the project with Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi Arabia is planning to provide $20 billion in funding for the corridor, but aside from that, the sums involved are as yet unclear. The details will be hashed out over the next two months. But if the West and its allies truly want to compete with China's so-called New Silk Road, they will need a lot of money.

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