The information technology-business process management sector’s revenues climbed 10.3 percent in 2022 to a record $32.5 billion from $29.47 billion in 2021, an industry group said Tuesday.
Data from the IT-Business Process Association of the Philippines also showed that employment in the sector increased 8.4 percent last year to 1.57 million from 1.42 million.
IBPAP president and chief executive Jack Madrid said the sector outperformed the aggressive targets under Roadmap 2028 in terms of headcount and revenue growth.
“We’re working on Roadmap 2028 with purpose and momentum. That’s the only way we can hope to achieve our goal of building the industry to a 2.5 million-strong workforce and generating $59 billion in revenues for the country,” he said.
“We still have a long way to go, but Philippine IT-BPM’s stellar performance in 2022 brings us closer to generating 1.1 million new jobs for Filipinos. It’s also a testament to the collective efforts that the private sector, government, and academe have exerted to retain the industry as an indispensable pillar of the economy,” Madrid said.
IBPAP attributed the increased headcount and revenue to the growth in banking, financial services and insurance, healthcare, retail, technology and telecommunications segments of the industry.
It said that aside from contributing new jobs and export gains, the sector was also the main driving force for movements in the office market.
Based on the latest data from Leechiu Property Consultants, IT-BPM accounted for 466,000 square meter of office real estate take-up, which represented 48 percent of the total demand for office space nationwide. This marked an 81-percent growth from the 257,000 sq. m. take-up in 2021.
The group also noted significant expansions outside Metro Manila, particularly in Cebu, Davao, Bacolod, Pampanga and Laguna. It said more than 70,000 new jobs were generated in locations outside Metro Manila, which rose 17 percent from the previous year.
It said that by end-2022, about 31 percent of the sector’s total headcount or 486,000 full-time employees were drafted in the countryside.
Based on Roadmap 2028, the Philippine IT-BPM industry is expected to have 1.7 million FTEs and $35.9 billion in revenue by 2023.
A separate survey by IBPAP showed that about 83 percent of IT-BPM companies were expecting to post growth this year despite a potential global recession, while 17 percent remained neutral with their forecasts.
Results also showed that organizations would continue to outsource and use global business services this year as a lever to drive some of their cost-optimization initiatives.
Investments are projected to come from the following sectors: animation and game development, contact center, cybersecurity, financial technology, healthcare, internet service providers, IT solutions and shared services.
Cebu and Davao are expected to remain popular IT-BPM hubs, while Iloilo, Clark,and Sta. Rosa will be added to the mix.
Among the key business challenges that companies listed are talent and skills gap; cost pressures; location shift to other designations such as India, Poland and South America; evolving customer needs and business models like hybrid and remote work; and, inadequate supply of enabling infrastructure, particularly in the countryside.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg. We have more partnerships, projects and programs in the pipeline for talent development and the other acceleration levers and we don’t plan on letting up or slowing down because we realize that a lot is at stake here that’s beyond revenues, margins or profits,” Madrid said.