Why Australia Is Looking at PH

The Philippine Institute for Development Studies, a think tank, holds that Australia is all set to be the next major customer of the BPO industry in the Philippines.

The reasons are not hard to find. The Philippines’ talent pool is the numero uno reason – the archipelago produces 600,000 English-speaking graduates every year. Of this, some 3,000 are public accountants, a skillset that is highly in demand Down Under.

Peter Ross, a Visiting Fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, says there are plenty of opportunities in the SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) segment. Such companies would not have millions of dollars to establish captive facilities. They would still like BPO companies in the Philippines to serve their customers, which might range from 30 to 3,000.

The Philippines also is located on a most favorable time zone. There are three major time zones in Australia. One of them, the Australian Western Standard Time, is the same as the Philippines and covers 40% of Australia. This is the time zone that Perth is on. Cities like Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane are not very far off, being only two hours ahead of Manila.