+Teleperformance, a firm that provides worldwide services on a daily basis, inaugurated its Bacolod City call center yesterday and is looking to expand its workforce further.

The call center located at the Luxur Place (formerly the Bacolod Convention Plaza Hotel) currently has 300 employees but it hopes to have 750 by the end of 2007, Dave Rizzo, Teleperformance managing director, said.

"And in 2008 we would love nothing more than to be able to hire 500 more employees," he said.

"Bacolod is the area in the Visayas where we want to grow," Rizzo added. "Cebu is not necessarily attractive for us because there are a lot of competitors there," he also said.

"The call center industry is obviously going to be driven here in Bacolod by interest associated with a lot of the fortune 500 firms in the United States," he said.

The more client firms the Bacolod center serves the more jobs they can create, he said.

The Bacolod Teleperformace call center currently is providing services to three firms, which Rizzo said he could not name.

He said one of their clients has some of the most popular and largest entertainment parks around the world, one is a very popular cellphone manufacturer and one is one of the world's largest computer manufacturers.

They have had no difficulty finding employees in Bacolod City, in fact they have a healthy pipeline of new applicants who have been pre-selected in the event that the call center gets additional business in the near future, Rizzo said.

Claire Gutana-Bedia, Teleperformance Bacolod site director, said the call center began operations in the city and in three months hired 300 employees.

Miguel Cojuangco, Teleperformance president, thanked Bacolod City for its hospitality and support for their call center.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia, in response, assured that the city government will continue to provide a business climate for Teleperformace and other call centers to allow them to continue to grow.

"The growth of the call centers will also mean further growth of Bacolod City," he said.*CPG

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