Top executives from more than 10 countries are attending the International Outsourcing Summit: Global Market Leaders Addressing Global Issues to be held in the country next month, October 20-21.

Delegates from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, France, India, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, South Africa, the UK, and the US will participate in the international meeting which the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) is organizing.

“Because the Philippines is the number two offshore BPO center globally, this is a logical place to meet,” according to Oscar Sanez, BPA/P CEO. Furthermore, “Bringing together industry stakeholders will ensure continuous industry growth.”

Delegates will discuss the changing landscape of the industry. While 70% of offshore outsourcing spending still comes from the US, European spending has increased faster in 2009, resulting in changes in preferred outsourcing locations and language preference, according to the 2009 A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index.

Shifts in geographical preference, including significant gains in the Philippines and Southeast Asia and the weakening of Eastern European locations, also make this global summit of critical interest to stakeholders around the world, he noted.

“In addition to cost and geography, quality of labor and other issues related to decentralized offshoring are of paramount interest because they provide opportunities to emerging offshoring markets,” adds Jonathan de Luzuriaga, BPA/P executive director for industry affairs.

“They will also introduce new challenges such as educational capacity and workforce readiness which affects the nature of work being outsourced. McKinsey & Company projects a profound shift to higher value services or Knowledge Process Outsourcing over the next five years.”

Ultimately, the summit provides the opportunity to demonstrate the Philippines new position of influence on the industry. “The International Outsourcing Summit allows us to publicly stake out our leadership role in the industry, and to demonstrate our influence on its development,” Sanez observed.

Attendees include senior executives from global BPO companies and aligned industries such as telecom and network infrastructure and top officials of industry associations.

The Department of Tourism, Department of Trade and Industry, Board of Investments, the Commission on Information and Communications Technology are supporting the summit, in coordination with strategic marketing communications firm TeamAsia.