HE latest
accomplishment report from Malacañang regarding Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s
last Middle East sortie particularly to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is
enough to give anyone goose bumps. Not due to the allegedly sterling
achievements but because how the claims do not mesh with existing realities. The
official Palace line is that Arroyo’s two-day UAE swing garnered commitments for
200,000 new jobs for local workers in the emirates plus another US$1-billion in
investment commitments in the country.
That sounds heartwarming but just how the UAE will manage to
make those commitments in the midst of the current global economic crisis that
has slashed its oil revenues and deflated its asset prices is not explained. To
be sure, we can expect the UAE to turn in a lower growth rate this year. As for
those supposed expatriate job commitments, the official government policy of the
UAE in the near future is to continue focusing on diversification and creating
more opportunities for its local citizenry.
On the local employment front, comes the even more outlandish
claim by the unqualified Socio-economic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto that the
country’s job losses due to the global economic crisis are not just tapering off
but we can expect as many as half a million new jobs for the rest of the year
compliments of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.
Half a million new BPO jobs by the end of the year? Now, we
do now know how much adrenalin was in Recto’s blood stream when he signed that
report but, needless to say believing in its requires a quantum leap of faith.
According to an authoritative study under the auspices of the Asian Development
Bank (DBP) in 2007, total employment in the local BPO industry may reach from
500,000 to 600,000 by 2010. Just how Recto managed come up with his own findings
a year ahead of the ADB prediction, we will also never know.
Even the predictions in ADB-sponsored study require a lot of
faith to happen. For starters, the same study also sited a 2006 survey that
ranked Manila just 9th overall out of 24 leading cities worldwide in the
so-called "generic" competitiveness as a BPO center. The survey looked into the
"human capital costs, infrastructure, business and living environment and risk
factors" to determine "generic" competitiveness. Not surprisingly the top seven
cities all came from India, led by Delhi. On the other hand Cebu City, the Clark
Special Economic Zone and Davao City all came in at the 13th to 15th spots.
The Philippines was also rated as having the one of the
highest, if not the highest, costs for power, international fixed telephone
rates and Internet connectivity. We were only competitive in the category for
office space rent.
One key reason for the competitiveness of both Philippines
and India are our low wage rates for BPO workers. The same study shows that the
average annual salary in India is somewhere in the vicinity of US$10,000 while
those in the Philippines are just slightly higher. In comparison, BPO workers in
Ireland are receiving almost US$60,000 yearly while those in Singapore are
making more than US$40,000 yearly in average.
That speaks volumes about the quality of BPO jobs we are
getting over here. The bulk of local BPO workers or about 68.6 percent of the
total are employed by "contact centers." Also known as :customer interaction
centers" or "e-contact centers," these are simply the central point in any
business that manages customers contracts, typically by telephone but may
include other forms of communications such as e-mails, postal mails catalogs,
web sites inquiries and chats. These generated US1.8 billion in revenues of
close to US$2.4 billion in 2006. It is also not surprising that the sub-sector
has the lowest skills requirements for its workers, usually a good command of
English or any other language of choice.
It is really tragic that this administration is operating in
a world purely of its own making, divorced from the truth and the concrete
conditions abounding elsewhere.
