In 2000, there was no Sykes, no Convergys, and no eTelecare in the Philippines. Today, you probably have friends who work in call centers, who are medical transcriptionists, who are software engineers. I remember sitting down with a few of them one morning in McDonald’s. It was a random group that I chanced upon and who didn’t mind that I joined in their after-work chismis. They talked about their night shifts, what they spent their salaries on, and the clients they dealt with on a daily basis. They made jokes about taxes and wondered if I’d be so nice as to lower it for them. I laughed along.

Today, this industry has over 450,000 people. That’s certainly a far cry from the starting 5,000 that pioneered the call center market in the Philippines at the start of the decade. And I can say now that after watching the local industry thrive despite global recession, I am very, very proud to have been part of this push. But as many pioneers of the sector will tell you today, getting investments, establishing the industry from scratch wasn’t easy. I remember the small hotel room where I was crammed in along with Karen, Bong, Dan, and many others… to plan the first business strategy of the BPO industry in the country. We had to make a case, you see. We had to go around countless business missions to get the multinationals to set up shop.

First of all, we were competing with many other countries: India, certainly, along with Ireland and the Dominican Republic, among many others. Back then, not too many companies in the world knew that the Philippines was the more cost-efficient option with a thriving population that already spoke fluent English. And even here at home, there was a big behind-the-scenes debate on what to focus our attention on: do we compete on the software writing level? Or do we blaze a trail for customer service? As a fresh DTI Secretary, I did a bit of research and I can tell you with certainty that we lacked the manpower to do the first. As it turned out, however, we were very well equipped for the second, proving once more that the greatest resource of this country is its people.

This being the new year of 2010, it’ll be approximately 10 years since we took that plunge. It took two strategic phases to enable the BPO and IT sectors to grow to the state its in today. We are now on the verge of the much-awaited third phase. Where will this path lead? Well, my take is simple. Now that we have the industry, we go back to basics… but instead of incentivizing the foreign multinationals, we focus on allowing the local companies to compete with the pioneers, we focus on getting more people involved, educated, and/or hired. Considering the vast audience that is the Internet, I’d like to pose the same question to you, dear reader. What do you think? How should government treat the industry in 2010? Why?

M.

Advanced English Proficiency Pre-Employment Training (AdEPT)
Program Launch
Makati Sports Club

Thank you very much Vincent (Fabella) for your very kind and gracious exaggerations about Mr. Palengke.  Let’s give Vincent a round of applause. To the Chairman of the BPAP, Fred Ayala, let’s give Fred as well a round of applause. To my fellow speakers this morning, Grace Zata from the what was the Personnel Managers Association of the Philippines, now the People Management Association of the Philippines. Benedict Hernadez of the CCAP, to the leadership and members of COCOPEA, all the other members of BPAP, friends and co-workers in the audience particularly Dr. (Mona) Valisno, the presidential adviser on education; I also see Lydia Echauz from FEU, Bong (Saturnino) Belen during my DTI days who was very, very active and continues to be active with the BPAP and the association, friends, ladies and gentlemen good morning.

I know it’s very hard to be excited at 8:30 in the morning, but I must say that coming here and learning and thinking about addressing all of you during this launch of AdEPT got me really excited this morning.

I recall my days as a DTI Secretary, that was year 2000, there was no BPO or IT or call center industry in the country. In fact it was a very well- kept secret; it was a competitive advantage that one or two or five had discovered in the Philippines. They found that they could get a very good product or output, that the people were competent English-wise and education-wise, and they did not want to share this knowledge with the rest of the world. So they were very, very quiet about their operations here. Most were company-owned and -controlled operations, back office work in accounting, in human resource development and in customer relations. AOL was in Clark; they answered email, questions from all the AOL universe in the U.S.; they had Filipinos type in all of their responses.

From those very early days, to where we are today, is really not just a leapfrog, not just what could be described as a transformation. But really, with all this change, in the industry itself and how it has affected our country, its culture, its lifestyle and most importantly the ambitions of our youth.

The youth today can clearly see what was described this morning as an escalator. That if they did their lessons, did their work, learn English they could, at the end of this whole long process, end up in a good decent well-paying job. And that I believe is the most important incentive to energize any student who now is in the education system: Once they see that in the end of this fourteen, sixteen year of process of educating themselves, there would be a job for them.

So I am very very happy, I am very very keen to be with you, to be part of this AdEPT launch and not just be a partner during the launch itself but to be a partner in all the other steps to make it happen. So let us, first of all, give a round of applause to BPAP and the COCOPEA, who are the two main engines that have now led to this AdEPT launch.

English has always been a competitive advantage for our country, because of the Thomasite brothers who first came here and established schools all over the country during the early years of colonization. We were able to learn English, and through English we were able to understand the declaration of Independence and all of these great works that imbibe in us our desire for democracy and liberty in a democratic state. English has always been, then and today, an advantage Filipino has had in comparison to our neighbors. This English competency is what enabled the BPO sector, the IT space to thrive in our country.

The Filipino has always been God-fearing, has always been family oriented, and has been diligent and persevering. With education, these inherent values in our culture are now given shape, are now given form so that they can be operationalized, and can be made productive in the modern commercial space.

And that is what we have here today. We have a great partnership as among those who meet qualified, educated English-competent people who will inhabit the BPO space. And we have the academe who are, year-in and year-out, producing the educated Filipino. By having this marriage, so to speak, between academe and BPO we will be able to narrow if not outright eliminate the gap between what is produced by our education system and what is needed by the BPO industry. And in that regard, by narrowing that gap, or by eliminating it, we will be making it so much easier for our people to get a job, to have livelihood, to start off their lives after graduation.

We all think about this in terms of the industry, the academe and the BPO space, but let us not forget that at bottom or at heart of all of this is a young person; a young person that went to school, sacrificed, maybe had a brother or a sister who had to give up their own education so that they could continue with theirs.  A family that had to sell or pawn the family assets just so that the kids could continue with their education.

That kid, that young Filipino, now, because of AdEPT will be given a great opportunity to actualize his best potentials here in our country. So at the heart of all of these, not withstanding all the industry data, the associations, the great units as part of this conjoining of efforts between BPAP and the academe, is really a person. A person whose life you will all touch. A person that because of this you will empower a young Filipino whose dream is now abot-kaya, abot-kamay as opposed to just theoretical.

So it’s for that reason that I am very, very happy, very keen and very energized and very excited to be a part of this launch and to be part of the AdEPT efforts to make this come to reality.

Each life that we touch, each life that we were able to empower because of this, is a life that will have meaning, that will be productive, that will contribute to the greater society and will form part of our nation. A nation that is, admittedly, under stress, a nation that faces so many challenges. But a nation and a people that are resilient, a people that are hopeful, a people with constant belief in the Almighty and their own abilities. And because of that—a people that will rise up and together with the AdEPT, with the BPO space, with the academe and with the BPAP, will be building our nation.

Thank you and good morning to all of you!