The President made the gesture as she toured WinSource Solutions facilities at the Robinsons Cybergate Tower I, in Mandaluyong City as part of her administration’s effort to promote offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

"We’re proud of our highly skilled and hardworking workforce that is proven to be among the best in the world," she said.

WinSource Solutions Inc. offers customer management and accounts receivable management services for companies in the United States. Aside from the US, its target markets also include telecommunications and information technology (IT) firms in Australia and the United Kingdom.

The Philippines ranks as one of the top sites-of-choice for BPO due to the Filipinos’ work ethic, proficiency in the English language, strong government support, and low labor cost, among others.

At present, there are about 63 outsourced contact or call centers in the country that make up about 25,000 seats. The industry raked in total revenues of about US$200 million last year and is projected to increase it up to US$1 billion for 2005.

The Arroyo administration has declared offshore outsourced services, particularly call center operations, as one of the developing sectors that it is committed to support and promote to attain its targeted number of call center seats to reach 40,000.

As part of Arroyo administration’s development agenda to harness the full potentials of information and communications technology (ICT) through digital infrastructure, the government’[s priority plan includes measures designed to boost call centers located in key strategic business areas in the country, including Metro Cebu and Metro Davao.

Winsource Solution Inc. is working on 1,000-seat plan over a period of five years and plans to hire more than 2,000 contact call center workers.