“Hi, my name is Jen. How may I help you today?”

Herlyn Garcia helps a customer in England to use her new device.

“I am so sorry you have trouble with that. No worries, I will be assisting you with your concern…”

But Herlyn Garcia is responding from Manila. The Philippines has quickly become the world’s largest call center country with more than a million workers. This Swedish company Transcom employs ten thousand Filipinos.

THIS South East Asian economy is growing fast, attracting international companies to cut costs and outsource THEIR business operations here.

Siva Subramaniam

Country Manager, The Philippines

Transcom

“The English skills are second to none. It is the second or third largest English speaking country in the world. 500 000 graduates graduating every year. Infrastructure is fantastic. Government support is great. All combined, the Philippines is very attractive proposition.”

Business process outsourcing is making a change in the country where the majority lives in absolute poverty or earns a low wage.

Sherryl Castelo studied engineering but found out that the pay was better at a call center.

Today she earns around a thousand dollars a month as a team leader. This is a competitive salary in the Philippines.

Sherryl Castelo

Team leader, Transcom

I am a licenced engineer. I still chose to be part of this BPO industry. We are very well compensated. They give us lots of benefits.”

The work like Sherryl’s is having an impact on many young family’s life style which makes a difference from previous generations. Her little son wears branded clothes, has his own tablet computer and a savings account. His parents already plan for his high education.

Sherryl Castelo

Team leader, Transcom

“We can afford to buy the things we need especially for our son. Not only things we need but things we like.”

Every day a few hundred job seekers walk in through Transcom doors. The majority have a college degree. They fill in an application form, wait for an interview and hear straight away whether they got the job as a customer consultant. Transcom hires 400 agents every week.

Herlyn Garcia expects to take a complete new path from her parents’ generation. Herlyn planned to work abroad like her mum used to and ten million Filipinos still do, to ensure their families survive. They don’t have a choice. Remittancies are the country’s main export income. Now Herlyn dares to see her future at home.

Herlyn Garcia

Call center employee

“My mum used to work in Japan. That was when I was in the elementary. That was hard. That is the reason also I stopped thinking I should go abroad. Without my mom, it was only my dad taking care of us, it was hard. I missed my mum.”

Herlyn is a single mother living with her parents, grandmum, sisters and her son. With the call center income she is the breadwinner of the family. Her mother started working as an eight-year old. For her son Herlyn expects an easier life.

For the first time she can save. And like many others, she likes the ability to consume, including the odd luxury item.

Herlyn Garcia

“Before when I am not yet in the BPO industry, if my shoes were not torn, I would not purchase one. But now because I am earning little bigger, if I see something I want like these shoes, I buy them.”

“It is not acceptable to ask a childless couple why don‘t they have children. People don’t like to be asked how much they earn.”

Call center agents spend time learning the culture and rhetoric of their customers around the world. Business process outsourcing grows double digit speed per year and boosts other parts of the economy like construction.

As the Asians grow richer, more international brands are filling shop shelves. Private consumption is the biggest factor in the growth of the economy here.

Sheryl’s mum looks after her grandson at the nursery of the call center, when Sheryl works night shift to help the British during their afternoons. Outsourcing has brought European benefits to the Philippines.

The middle class is expanding as the economy grows over six percent per year, but this group is still very small in the Philippines. One in four Filipinos live in absolute poverty. Outsourcing alone will not create a more inclusive economy when there are not enough industrial jobs for million of poorly educated people.

Emmanuel Esguerra

Acting Director General

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)

“Important as the BPO industry is to growth and employment creation in the Philippines, it is not automatic that people released from the agricultural sector can be employed readily in the BPO sector because the skills that are required are very different.”

A growing middle class can however be an influential force in a country affected by high corruption and a tiny but powerful wealthy elite. With its own wealth the middle class will gain influence to demand better services.

Neil Castelo

Sales Manager

“My dream for my child for him is to have a good education, better health services, services like roads, transportation also.  This should be addressed by the government since we all pay tax.”

Asian economies grow fast. The rise of the middle class has a global effect as European economies slow down. In fifteen years Asia is expected to have more than half of the world’s middle class and purchasing power.