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The Philippines is fast emerging as the “Best Shore” for Finance and
Accounting, Legal and Human Resources business process outsourcing. It has a
large labor force of highly skilled, multi-lingual college graduate
professionals - many with advanced graduate school degrees. From grade school
through college and on to professional training, English is the language of
choice - and it is the one used for all important business transactions and
legal documents. (Other languages spoken include Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin
and Filipino, based on the dominant Tagalog dialect.)
Although they have retained certain European traits from their Spanish colonial
past (following Ferdinand Magellan’s “discovery” of the Philippines in 1521) and
even Chinese influences derived from centuries-old, trans-Asian mercantile ties,
modern Filipinos have a much stronger cultural affinity to the United States as
a result of the American occupation of the Philippines from 1898 until it gained
its independence in 1946 and the country’s rapid development post-World War II.
The greatest contribution America made to the Philippines involved the creation
of a modern educational system, setting the stage for the Filipino’s remarkable
ability to communicate very well in English - grammatically sound and without
the accent problem found in other English-speaking, former colonial subjects of
the West.
Predominantly (85%) Catholic, Filipinos also enjoy a reliable stability
engendered by a strong set of family values and religious mores, decidedly
secular, democratic and Western in orientation, resulting in a strong work ethic
generated by a consistent emphasis on education as the key to successful
professional career.
Consider the following:
Filipino accountants are well versed with U. S. Generally Accepted Accounting
Principles (GAAP), as well as International Accounting Standards (IAS), for
financial reporting - standards used in the U. S., Japan and most of Europe. In
fact, Filipino accountants are widely considered as “among the best in the
world.” (In the first quarter of 2005 alone, the Philippines licensed 113,300
CPAs.)
McKinsey Global Institute ranks the Philippines as the most attractive offshore
outsourcing location relative to “total cost” (followed by India, Malaysia and
China, in that order). See Location Cost Index database, McKinsey Global
Institute, Exhibit 2, The McKinsey Quarterly at http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1684&L2=7&L3=10
“For every 100 college graduates with finance and economics degrees from
countries in our sample, executives of multinationals said they would hire 30 in
the Philippines, compared with just 15 in India”. See Beshouri, Farrell and
Umezawa, The McKinsey Quarterly: The Online Journal of McKinsey & Co. at http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1684&L2=7&L3=10
Per e-services Philippines, major global brands such as Citibank, Deutsche Bank,
J. P. Morgan, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, IBM, Intel, Dell, Siemens,
AOL, Time Warner, Shell Oil, Chevron/Texaco, AIG, Sunlife Insurance, Alitalia,
Navitaire, SPI Technologies, Canon Information Technologies, Misys, Accenture,
Maersk Sealand, Asiana Airlines, NYK Logistics, Mitsui and Co., Henkel, and
Cypress Communications have already selected the Philippines for their Shared
Services Centers. See http://www.e-servicesphils.com/us2006/
Among 60 Asia Pacific countries, the Swiss International Institute for
Management Development ranks the Philippines as #1 in available skilled workers,
#3 in available senior managers, #10 in available accounting and financial
skills and #12 in qualified engineers. See http://www.e-servicesphils.com/us2006/
International management consultants Mercer Human Resource Consulting cites the
Philippines as among countries offering the lowest IT salaries in 32 countries
for the same skill sets (such as supervisory and managerial). In its Worldwide
Cost of Living Survey 2006, Manila ranked as the fourth least expensive for
expatriate living among 144 cities included in the poll.
Government policies such as the e-Commerce Law, Intellectual Property Code,
Public Telecom Law and Guidelines for Personal Data Protection are in place,
assuring a business-friendly environment.
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