Cagayan de Oro seeks to double BPO employment

Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao is aiming to more than double the current number of jobs generated by 15 business process outsourcing companies in the city. Stephanie Caragos, ICT city council president, said the BPO industry in Cagayan de Oro City currently employs some 2,000 agents, and the city wants to raise that to 5,000. The target is achievable considering that Cagayan de Oro has been identified as one of the “next wave cities”, Caragos said. Recently, Japanese online English tutorial firm Envizion opened a 250-seating capacity contact center in the Lifestyle District of the city. Outsourcing firm Azpired has also recently opened a 600-seating capacity contact center. Teleperformance assistant manager for external relations, Martin Antonio, said the city is attractive to BPO companies because it possessed a good number of schools, seen as a potential labor force, and was considered a financial capital in the region.