The outsourcing industry is ever volatile and can be subject to the political and economic whims that threaten a country. While sometimes unrest in a country may have little effect on a call center services outsourcing hub, as when unrest in the Philippines made headlines last year and its current state now, it can also still have a negative effect on outsourcing; with Egypt’s unrest and uncertainties, its plans to emerge as a sought after call center hub may have now been threatened.

When one talks about outsourcing, it is India that usually comes to mind. It cannot be denied that India has the largest market for outsourcing firms. Last October 26, 2010, we published an article entitled “Philippines Continues to Live Up To Offshoring Destination Of The Year Title“, which reported that despite having been given the Offshoring Destination of the Year award, the Philippines still ranks second to India in the outsourcing space. There is indeed a remarkable gap between these two countries. But while there is a significant difference between the two, recent figures show that the Philippines is actually starting to catch up and close the lead between it and India.

Reading the Indian mainstream news yesterday about India Inc.’s strategy to expand operations in Eastern Europe and hire multilinguals to serve the European finance and accounting sector does not surprise me anymore. In my April article, I talked about how Europe is becoming more comfortable with outsourcing not just to its neighboring countries but also to Asia particularly to the Philippines. The following month, I wrote an article on Philippine Outsourcing re-focusing its efforts to the European market instead in anticipation of US political and trade condition changes.

Today, the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP) asked for the government’s support to promote the country as an offshore destination. According to BPAP president Oscar Sanez “This year will be a busy year for us in terms of attracting new investors.”

The U.S. financial environment still appears to be bleak especially with more sectors coming out in need of bailout. From the banking sector, the world has now witnessed it spread to other industries. Those remaining companies which are merely surviving or will be receiving government aid will naturally restructure themselves to be leaner by selling off their non-core businesses, shutting down non-profitable divisions or transferring operations elsewhere to lower costs. The latter is seen as a good business opportunity for the Philippines to boost its outsourcing industry.

Despite pessimism in the global financial market, the Philippines is still set to have a double digit growth at a projected rate of 25.6% , previously at 31.2% by 2010 said XMG Canada. This new estimated growth is even higher than the 22.25% growth forecast for India. Even if 90% of its contracts are coming from United States; the Philippine outsourcing industry continues to be aggressive, targeting a 10 percent share of the US$130 billion global business process outsourcing market and 1.5 million jobs in 2 years.

This is the new branding slogan of the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP). Local BPO firms launched this marketing campaign as it seeks to attract more companies to outsource in the Philippines not just for the quality of services, but also for everything else the Philippines has to offer.