City gov’t seeks more spaces for BPO industry

By John Noel E. Herrera

The Iloilo City Government is in need of additional building spaces as more business processing outsourcing (BPO) companies have expressed plans to invest in the city.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry P. Treñas said that Iloilo City has become “very attractive” to BPOs, but the challenge is to further increase its number of BPO-suitable buildings.

“May duha pa da ka buildings sa Megaworld nga gina-ubra, nga para man sa BPO manugtapos, pero contracted naman na. So, you know, kinahanglan ta gid additional building spaces for BPOs,” Treñas said in a press conference.

Treñas also revealed that two BPO companies had earlier expressed interest in doing business in the city, but there were not enough available office spaces already.

The mayor will also meet with Colliers Philippines, a leading commercial real estate brokerage professional services and property consultant, David Leechiu, together with other property firms like Ayala Corporation, Robinsons Land Corporation, Florete Land, Uygongco Corp., Megaworld Corp., and SM Prime Holdings to discuss matters related to the lack of building spaces for BPOs.

“We need to fast-track or else mabilin naman kita. Kinahanglan ma-explain ko sa ila nga amo ni ang kinahanglan,” the mayor added.

The lack of space in Iloilo City also gave an opportunity to the neighboring town of Pavia, Iloilo, with one mall and a hotel in the town being occupied by a BPO company.

Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE), the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, projected Iloilo City to become the third biggest hub for BPO in the country by 2025.

Meanwhile, data from the Local Economic Development and Investment Promotion (LEDIP) indicated that there are around 102 BPO companies in Iloilo City.

The Iloilo Federation of Information Technology (IFIT) also counted 35,000 full-time employees in bigger BPO companies, with around 2,000 to 3,000 engaged in work-from-home jobs.

IFIT also acknowledged that the industry is “evolving” as there are already over 100 Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) firms in the metro, with 87 big and small companies from telecommunications, healthcare, tourism, software design, and architecture, among others.

IFFI also said that the boom in the BPO industry increased the employees’ capacity to pay, which benefited other industries like food, retail, and transportation.

The city government also emphasized that it will continue to help the business sector as it looks forward to a positive effect in terms of employment opportunities for the locals.

“Very important ang employment. Every year we have graduates. They will look for employment and kadaku gid sang bulig sang BPO companies sa employment,” Treñas also said.