Superior performance of agents, cheap rates and customer satisfaction are the reasons many business process outsourcing (BPO) firms are investing in the Philippines.

Commission on Information and Communication Technology (CICT) Secretary Mon Sales, in an interview, said BPO investors are satisfied with the results of their businesses here as compared to those in India, United States and Canada.

From about 70,000 agents in the last three years, the number of Filipino call center agents has grown to 200,000 now, he noted.

The government targets to have about 506,000 call center agents by 2010.

Sales said BPO investors have noted that Filipino call center agents are more accommodating than their counterparts abroad.

He, however, said the country still lacks qualified call center agents in terms of volume.

For this reason, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has ordered the allocation of P500 million for the training of potential personnel for the call center industry.

Sales said call center applicants who were not accepted due to minor problems like diction and pronunciation, or those referred to as “near hires,” were referred by the companies to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for the government’s training program.

Under the program, each applicant is given a voucher worth P5,000 that the beneficiary can use to undergo training in TESDA-accredited centers.

Sales said about two to seven percent of call center applicants are rejected and about 45 percent of them are near hires but after the training, only about 30 percent of these near hires are finally accepted for the job.

Source: Balita Organization Inc.