MANILA - Annual foreign exchange earnings from the Philippines call center industry will nearly triple to $7.3 billion in 2010, up from about $2.6 billion this year, an industry leader said yesterday.

Industry employment would rise to some 506,500 call center agents compared to 179,000 this year, said Rainiero Borja, president of People Support, a call center firm.

Citing figures from the industry association and the government, Borja told an annual industry conference that call center employees would pay P8.6 billion ($162 million) in income taxes this year with more money spent on downstream industries such as office rentals and equipment supplies.

Bacoleños more adept in English
than counterparts in Metro Manila

An assessment conducted by Teleperformance shows that call center applicants from Bacolod have a higher proficiency in English compared to those from Metro Manila, Mayor Evelio Leonardia said in a press release yesterday.

Teleperformance Site Director Richard Loveland and Account Manager Jason Farman told Leonardia in their recent visit to Bacolod that applicants in the city scored higher passing rates compared to their Metro Manila counterparts. Loveland and Farman said that this is one of the reasons why Teleperformance is putting up their multi-million investment here, the press release said.

POs, NGOs forming broad coalition for
CARP implementation in Negros

People's groups and non-government organizations in Negros Occidental is forming a broad coalition to push for authentic agrarian reform and sustainable rural development, its secretariat, the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement said yesterday.

Arlene de la Cruz of PRRM-Negros said that at the PO-NGO conference held last Saturday at their office in Bacolod City, the groups agreed to form the Negros Unity Forum for Agrarian Reform that will be launched on June 30. The coalition seeks to engage government participation through the Department of Agrarian Reform, she said.

The NUFAR was conceptualized by representatives from farmers and rural workers groups and NGOs advocating agrarian reform after the round table discussion organized by the PRRM and the Agrarian Justice Foundation Inc. on May 31.

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