No doubt about it, the high tech industry known as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has grown to be one of the biggest if not the single industry to revolutionize modern communications and perhaps the fastest growing technology in terms of manpower skills utilization and sources of employment opportunities is in the modern world today.

No less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself yesterday said the business process outsourcing (BPO), the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sectors create jobs with above-average salaries and bring more investments into the country.

The President, on the second day of her week-long tour of the so-called cyber corridor, is in Bacolod City today to visit one of the biggest and fastest-growing BPO call center in the region, will see for herself how the modern facilities of Teleperformance has boosted the once fledgling call center business which today enjoys the focus of attention for having contributed immensely to the flowering of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in this part of the country and the world, providing job opportunities for Bacoleños and Negrenses primarily, and qualified young men and women from nearby cities, towns and provinces to try their luck in the BPOs which have found their mark in this capital city of sugarlandia.

In her message at the Jose Rizal University (JRU) where the President was visiting a few days ago, she said the Philippines has come a long way since 2001, when the country teetered on the brink of financial bankruptcy.

In 2001, the President said, the economy was "jammed in reverse." She pointed out that she turned things around by developing the labor-intensive, skills-intensive ICT and tourism services and by instilling fiscal discipline, among others.

"We did it from scratch. With only 4,000 workers then," she said, "we turned the Philippine BPO industry into a global powerhouse."

According to the President, the cyber corridor is now a multi-billion peso industry "made up of the strongest potential locations for ICT firms engaged in software development, medical transcription, engineering design, animation, and game development."

She added that the cyber corridor now houses 750 BPO companies served by three high-bandwidth backbone and digital networks.

This growth in the BPO and ICT industry is the result of efforts to promote strategic investments in digital infrastructure, adoption of appropriate policies, and the creation of environment conducive to the development of human capital.

She said the government has invested much in human development by providing more than 5,000 schools with computers, 4,000 of them with internet connection.

She added that her administration has established three times more technical schools than the three previous administrations combined.

"Thanks to the cyber corridor, billions of pesos in investments poured into the country, creating half a million jobs in BPOs alone," she said.

"It is this big number of livelihood opportunities that is part of the legacy I am leaving behind."

She said her administration, through hard work, has also created a strong and stable economy, presented a renewed global engagement, made major investments in healthcare and education, laid out roads and bridges, and built irrigation systems, and roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) ports.

However, the President said, so much more remains to be done, "I am determined to turn over to a new government a Philippines on the verge of attaining First World status in 20 years."

The President added that the Philippines’ BPO industry earned $7.3 billion in 2009, not far behind from India’s $ 9 billion for its call centers.

Obviously, that’s how fast and progressive a city and province could be, given the modern facilities and the unlimited talent inherent in the Filipino, Negrenses in particular, plus the needed incentives and motivations that keep the wonders communications moving ahead and in the right directions.

Indeed, the world is getting smaller everyday and the Filipino is very much in the race, up front.*