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The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry generated over $2 billion in revenues and created over 138,000 new jobs, growing nearly 50 percent over a two-year period.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has finally concluded the baseline survey of BPO companies in the country and based on preliminary results, officials said the industry is understated in the national accounts.

BSP Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the survey covered the 2004 and 2005 period, establishing the baseline information on the BPO industry in an effort to determine exactly how these operations affect the country’s balance of payments (BOP).

According to Guinigundo, the bulk of revenues generated by BPOs do not pass through the banking system in any form that could be reported to the BSP.

“The only way really is to go door-to-door and ask them individually,” Guinigundo said. “This is what we have done, just so we know where we are.”

The BSP said it surveyed 317 BPO companies and the response rate was around 63 percent, covering various BPO activities from call centers, animation, software development and transcription to other related outsourced activities.

According to Guinigundo, however, the results of the survey did not include responses from several big-ticket BPO companies, indicating that the initial results are still significantly understated.

“Right now it appears that the total revenues generated by the BPO industry were close to the estimates of the industry association,” he said. “At this level, it doesn’t look like there will be a need to revise the national income accounts.”

Guinigundo said that based on the baseline survey, the gross value added to the economy was estimated at 62.93 percent. This means that for every peso invested in BPOs, about 63 centavos is added to the economy as a whole.

In terms of employment, Guinigundo said the survey indicated a strong 46 percent growth from the total 94,488 jobs in 2004 to 138,000 jobs in 2005.

BPO companies paid total compensation of P26.4 billion in 2004, surging to P42.4 billion in 2005 with revenues topping at $1.8 billion in 2004 and reaching $2 billion the following year.

“Our caveat here is that we may not have captured the big ones,” Guinigundo said. “But in time we will capture them in the succeeding surveys.”

The preliminary result also showed that 63 percent of foreign investments into BPO came from the US and Europe came in a distant second with 26.8 percent. Japan accounted for 1.4 percent and “other Asia” accounted for 8.4 percent.

The “other Asia” category included investments from India, Malaysia and Singapore.

Initially, the survey also indicated that the biggest expansion was seen in medical transcription which account for only a small percentage of BPOs in the country but has been expanding at a phenomenal rate of 85 percent.