In the middle of the global economic turndown, two business process outsourcing (BPO) companies have operated in Leyte and  Iloilo. APAC Customer Services Inc., a contact center company located in Palo town, Leyte, opened its P200-million feature in Leyte on Monday, which made the firm the first and only call center to operate in Eastern Visayas. The business is extremely joyful to open a branch in Leyte even with the global financial crisis which is currently sweeping the world, according to Michael Marrow, APAC chief executive officer.

In a press conference recently, Marrow said that the prospect of their operations in Leyte is very outstanding.  APAC expects to offer job opportunity to 1,000 workers when the facility turns into operations. The company has chosen Leyte because the local government comprehend their needs and the type of their business, noted by Dough Almond, AP vice president for international operations. The strong fiber optic backbone in the province also helped them. And because of more than 20 top universities in the region, the province made the main importance of the business. The APAC facility can be seen inside the Leyte Information Communication Technology (LICT) Park in Palo, Leyte, it is 10 km away from Tacloban City. Leyte, the APAC's first spot located outside Metro Manila. According to Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla, the setting up of APAC in Leyte was a dream come true. It’s always been the aspiration of Leyte to be an IT hub in Eastern Visayas, he added. The business has amenities located in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, and Cubao, Quezon City. In addition to its 12 sites in US, there were 5,000 employees in US and about 5,000 employees here in the Philippines, Marrow said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will inaugurate the TeleTech call center site In Iloilo City on Tuesday in a big enhancement for the city's hard work to be one of the country's top business processing outsourcing (BPO) centers. The arrival of Arroyo is expected to arrive before twelve noon at the Iloilo airport from Mindanao and she will proceed to the TeleTech site at the 3rd floor of the SM City mall to be found in Mandurriao District. She will join Maulik Parekh, TeleTech Executive Vice President for Asia TeleTech, and other executives in the unveiling of a marker at the place before meeting with the call center's officials. Several members of the Cabinet who will join the President includes secretaries Rey Anthony Roxas Chua (Commission on Information and Communications Technology), Peter Favila (Trade and Industry) and Marianito Roque (Labor and Employment). Considered the largest in this city, the 746-seater call center has around 1,600 employees mostly are residents of Western Visayas region. Parekh said that the people of Iloilo are privilege that their city now ranks third in the list of next wave BPO destinations in the country. [via]