By Minerva BC Newman

Cebu City (21 October) -- Even as the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the country is working on a five-year roadmap to help sustain its growth, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said in a study that the high cost of power and the shortage of qualified human resource pose major threats to the growth of the industry.

In a study presentation to a multi-sector group in Cebu recently, the PIDS report said, the Philippine's ability to attract more companies that outsource business processes to the country is also threatened by the unstable political environment, kidnapping and terrorist attacks.

Earlier, Dan Reyes, president of the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) said, "The call center industry is still growing. The revenue figures are between 42 and 60 percent and the country's BPO industry is projected to generate $12.2-billion in annual revenues and employ close to one million workers by 2010."

The PIDS report further reads, in 2004, the country has captured 20% of the total world market share in call centers services and it is estimated to capture 50% of the total English-speaking world market by 2008. The Philippine BPO sector, according to the PIDS report grew from $350-million in 2001 to $1.65-billion in 2004 in terms of revenue with the biggest sub-sector, the customer care or call center that captured 35% of the total BPO sector.

The industry is continuously hounded by the high cost of power in the country. "The power supply in the country must improve to sustain the current momentum of the BPO industry," the report said.

The BPO industry is engaged in outsourced customer care; back office operations; medical, legal and other date transcription; animation; software development; engineering design; and digital content production.