Investors In The US - July 7, 2008

For investors in the US, the economic wobbles of recent months could spell the onslaught of a recession. But from his skyscraper office in downtown Manila, Danilo Sebastian Reyes, the president of Sitel, a business process outsourcing (BPO) firm that employs some 2,000 people in the Philippines, sees the beginning of boom time. As fuel and food costs continue to soar, forcing corporate cutbacks, more American businesses are looking to save by outsourcing portions of their business abroad. "For the last three months, there''s been an accelerated number of companies that have decided to go into the Philippines," says Mr. Reyes. That means more overseas workers from India to Poland will be fielding calls for Citibank credit card customers or remotely managing Hewlett Packard''s human resources tasks. The Philippines, with some of the highest literacy rates and cheapest wages in Asia, is positioning itself to capture 10 percent of the world''s back office work by 2010, which analysts predict will balloon to a $130 billion industry.