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Friday, March 29, 2024

BPO sector seen to fall short of 2018 jobs target

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The information technology and business process management industry is expected to fall short of its 2018 jobs and revenue targets, an industry group said Tuesday.

The IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines said the hiring rate of the industry did not meet the employment target over the past 18 months. Based on the roadmap, the group is projecting new hires of 100,000 heads annually.

“When we look at the last 18 months, we found out we’re falling short [of the target]. But aggregating industry figures, much of the talent was in fact retained,” ITBPAP president Rey Untal said in a news briefing Tuesday.

The industry employed around 1.3 million people and contributed $23 billion to the economy in 2017. It aims to increase the employment to 1.8 million by 2022 under the new five-year road map.

Untal said investors were particularly worried about losing their tax incentives under the proposed package 2 of the tax reform bill.  He said the slower revenue growth in 2018 was due to the uncertainty on government policy.

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“That uncertainty was upon us even before the first tax reform law was implemented. The second package has certainly got players more worried because the bill will have direct impact to operations,” Untal said.

Under the proposed Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities or Trabaho bill, the government will reduce corporate income taxes and rationalize tax incentives dangled to foreign and local companies, including those registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

Untal said industry players voiced out their sentiments about the significance of the incentives to their operations in the Philippines.

“Equally, they are saying that if they see a radical shift from what we are enjoying from global competitiveness standpoint, the tendency is they will grow less. They’re not saying that they will close shop nor moving out,” Untal said.

Industry concerns and issues will be highlighted on Nov. 12 to 13 during the first International Innovation Summit at Shangri-La at the Fort in Taguig City.

ITBAP sub-sectors like the Animation Council of the Philippines, Contact Center Association of the Philippines, Game Developers Association of the Philippines, Global In-House Center Council Philippines, Healthcare Information Management Association of the Philippines and the Philippine Software Industry Association will take pro-active role during the summit.

“This is an exciting time for the industry. As it evolves, we see growth and expansion and we welcome these changes. Optimizing human resources and technology is one if the major industry issues. The summit is an excellent way for us to handle transitions and to cope with industry changes and trends, as well as to build relationships so we could share insights with one another and strengthen our position as one of the global economic drivers,” Untal said.

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