The Outsourcing Week in Review: Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Welcome to Inside Outsourcing: The Outsourcing Week in Review

THE WEEK IN REVIEW

The last-minute lockdown roulette is over – for now. President Rodrigo Duterte, late on Monday night, announced a further extension of the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) for Metro Manila until June 30. Restrictions have been tightened in Cebu City, reverting back to Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) due to the worrying rise of COVID-19 cases.

Malacañang Palace raised hopes last week as it approved 12 new economic zones worth P6.4 billion. According to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), the new ecozones which were approved from January to early June this year would provide a host of export-based manufacturers and BPO firms fiscal stimulation through tax incentives. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) chimed in with its optimism for the future of the Philippine Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry as they observe the sector providing increasing job opportunities throughout the pandemic.

However, the World Bank has put any optimism on hold as it predicted worldwide Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will shrink by 5.2% this year. Due to the pandemic, they expect the global economy to enter its deepest recession in 80 years. In respect to the Philippines, the World Bank projected an economic contraction of -1.9% for the year, slashing its previous forecasts issued only in April of a positive 3% growth.

Three months into lockdown and Philippine call centers are still trying to adjust to the current work-from-home (WFH) realities. A Bloomberg article this week shone the international spotlight on the Philippines BPO sector and how it is coping with one of the world’s strictest lockdowns. Alorica spoke of the challenges of accommodating 40,000 staff across 22 sites with only 50% maximum capacity and the need to revise client agreements in terms of managing sensitive information, while Teleperformance shared that many of their 47,000 Philippine don’t have WFH setups conducive for call center operations.

In overseas outsourcing, South Africa’s Cape Town proudly announced that it has attracted ZAR954 million (USD56m, ₱2.8bn) worth of investments in its BPO sector for their financial year starting July 2019. The investment has resulted in 2,727 additional job opportunities in the city.

Could gambling pave the way to economic recovery? According to Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) chairperson and chief executive officer Andrea Domingo, it will be the casinos and gaming stations that will help the Philippine economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Domingo said that the gambling sector employs about 132,000 people and boosts the industries that are among the hardest hit by the pandemic. To further sweeten the deal, PAGCOR pledged to collect at least P2.5 billion more from Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) for the rest of this year once they resume full operations. Domingo is also hoping that POGOs would resume operations in June to generate more revenues.

In other gaming-related news, major BPO corporations are looking to double down on the fast-growing video games and animation sectors. From eSports to console gaming to cloud and mobile gaming, growth is exploding and has been further fueled by the pandemic’s lockdown. The Philippines is increasingly being recognised as a global gaming development and support hotspot with early-mover Ubisoft, a French video game company, opening the first AAA video game development studio in the country in 2016.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

NEWS THIS WEEK

15 June 2020

• DOLE optimistic on BPO resurgence in the next months – read article…
• Global economy will shrink by 5.2% this year, says World Bank – read article…
• Metro Manila quarantine guessing game ends today – read article…

11 June 2020

• Cape Town’s BPO sector attracts R954 million worth of investments – read article…
• Malacañang approves 12 new eco zones worth P6.4 billion – read article…
• PAGCOR seeks to collect at least P2.5 billion from POGOs – read article…
• PH call centers deal with WFH problems – read article…

10 June 2020

• SYKES promotes online job applications amid lockdown – read article…
• Gambling will help economic recovery – PAGCOR – read article…
• PH economy expected to shrink by 1.9% – read article…
• BPOs looking to nurture video games and animation – read article…

9 June 2020

• Wipro collaborates with IBM to provide comprehensive suite of cloud-based solutions – read article…
• Teleperformance’s country operations earn Great Place to Work® Certifications – read article…
• ‘Hotels in PHL can recover quicker than rest of Asia’ – read article…

Read more Inside Outsourcing Newsletters here:

1. The Outsourcing Week in Review: June 10, 2020
2. The Outsourcing Week in Review: June 24, 2020