THE Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and the Department of Trade and Industry have agreed to harmonize their reporting systems on the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry to ensure proper measurement of the sector’s economic contribution.

In a statement, the BSP said the synchronization would include data on revenues, exports, foreign investment, employment and compensation.

“The agreement will promote consistency in data reporting as well as significantly ease the reportorial requirement for BPO companies,” the central bank said.

The information will be useful for the government agencies and policy makers as basis for their assessment and decisions.

BPO is a cost-saving measure for tasks that a company requires. Services offered by BPO companies include contact center, medical and legal encoding, animation, software development, management consultancy, data processing, and financial accounting and engineering services.

Based on the latest BSP data, the industry generated P109.994 billion in revenue in 2005, 48.2 percent higher than the P74.171 billion in 2004.

Contact centers contributed 49.4 percent of the total revenues at P54.295 billion in 2005. Medical transcription was the fastest-growing segment, jumping 97 percent to P466.2 million. Software development, which accounted for 20 percent of industry revenues, grew 40.8 percent to P21.991 billion.

With the agreement, reportorial forms, definition of terms, and content are now consolidated and harmonized.

Prior to the agreement, BPO companies report their operations to various agencies such as the Trade department through attached agencies such as the Board of Investments and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

President Arroyo earlier said the government is targeting employment in the local BPO industry to increase by 40 percent this year to meet growing demand worldwide.

The Philippines employs 300,000 people in the BPO industry, making it the second top providers next to India of outsourced services.

Source: Maricel E. Burgonio