For the second time, the Philippines won the Offshoring Destination of the Year category at the 4th National Outsourcing Association (NOA) Awards held recently at the Park Plaza Riverbank, London.

The Philippines , which won the award for the first time in 2007, bested Egypt, Malaysia, Russia and Sri Lanka for 2009.

The NOA, United Kingdom's only outsourcing trade association, advocates best practice among outsourcing end users, vendors and support groups - legal firms, consultancies and Human Resources firms. It is likewise involved in research, events, education and public affairs.

In the past four years, the NOA has set high standards in recognizing outsourcing as a legitimate business practice. Hence, "The award shows our outsourcing sector is world class and has the capacity to compete among the best,” remarked Commission on Information Communications Technology (CICT) Secretary Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III. The CICT is the lead government agency overseeing the development of ICT in the Philippines.

Again, the award validates the country’s status as a world BPO market leader, Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) Chief Executive Officer Oscar Sanez pointed out.

BPAP is the umbrella trade association of local BPOs covering customer service, back office outsourcing, software development, engineering design, digital animation and game development.

Last year, the Philippine BPO industry generated 6.1 billion US dollars in export revenues and employed close to 400,000 workers making the Philippines the world's second biggest BPO player next only to India.

On November 16-17, a 15-member business delegation composed of BPAP and CICT will hold a Philippine BPO Networking Forum in London, afterwhich the group will join NOA’s 7th Annual Sourcing Summit.

BPAP submitted the Philippine entry for the NOA category nomination with the help of the Philippine Commercial Attache’s office in London.