Philippine IT-BP industry hits 2011 targets, grows 24%

11.04.2012
The Philippine information technology and business process (IT-BP) industry ended 2011 with US$11 billion in revenues, or 24% higher than in 2010, and employed 638,000, or 22% more employees in the same period, according to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP).

"We hit the targets projected in our Road Map 2016," pointed out new BPAP president and CEO Benedict Hernandez. "This is a good start to our five-year plan to grow at average of 20% a year--above projected global annual growth rates of 10% to 15%." At a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20%, IT-BP will become a US$25-billion industry by 2016, contributing about 9% of GDP and capturing 10% of the global IT-BP market share, Hernandez added.

The country's world No. 1 status in contact centers was further strengthened by impressive growth reported by the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), also headed by Hernandez. The contact center sector ended 2011 with 416,000 employees providing US$7.4 billion in services to the world. Already the largest contact center hub in the world, the sector posted a healthy 21% growth in 2011 and remained the largest sector of the Philippines IT-BP industry at 65% of total industry.

The Healthcare Information Management Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (HIMOAP) also produced impressive numbers that combined expansion and a first attempt to measure healthcare information management outsourcing (HIMO) services being done across a range of business process companies. A preliminary survey indicated that as much as US$277 million worth of HIMO services were provided to global end-users from the Philippines, with the sector employing 24,700.

Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA) president Nora Terrado reported a high 37% growth in revenues from IT outsourcing, compared with just 11% in employment growth. Anecdotal indicators also point to strong demand for Philippine IT services into 2012.

The Animation Council of the Philippines, Inc., (ACPI), however, revealed that the sector lost out to some contracts as global competition heated up in back-room animation services, particularly from countries like China that subsidize animation operations. ACPI reported that its sector shrank by 10% to US$128 million in revenues in 2011 but it maintained its headcount at about 8,600 animators.