Over 50 top corporate giants in the United States — including Citigroup, JPMorganChase, Credit Suisse Group, MCI, John Goldman & Co., Oppenheimer, ITESA, RCG Information Technology, Kaye Scholer LLP, Globe Capital Partners, and Welch Capital Partners — attended the recent outsourcing conference held at the Philippine Center on Fifth Avenue.

The April 21 event was jointly organized by the Philippine Consulate in New York; the Philippine Trade and Investment Center; and Butch Meily, special adviser to the Philippine ambassador to the United States on IT matters. 

The seminar entitled, “Golden Opportunities in Outsourcing to the Philippines,” was sponsored by the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce, Inc., (PACC) and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT).

PACC is one of the oldest bilateral trade groups in the U.S., while PLDT is the Philippines’ largest telecommunications company.

The participating finance, banking, communication and services firms registered for the half-day conference, which focused on the comparative advantages of the Philippines as an outsourcing destination.

The heavy turnout far exceeded the organizers’ original target of at most 20 participants. Consul General Cecilia Rebong said “the good turnout is attributable to the high quality of speakers that we were able to invite for the conference.”  

Topping the list of speakers was Secretary Virgilio Pena of the Philippine Commission on Information and Communications Technology. He was joined by Gov. Armin Raquel Santos of the Board of Investments and five other speakers from the private sector. 

Pena and Santos provided practical up-to-date information on the business and economic environment in the Philippines, and the major strides the country has made in the last five years to become one of the prime outsourcing destinations in the world second only to India.

The private-sector speakers spoke positively of their personal experiences of doing outsourcing business in the country.  

The private sector speakers were Fred Kumetz, CEO of e-Data Services, a Manila-based BPO specializing in medical and legal transcription services, record excerpting and high-end data entry services; Charles Otto, vice president of sales for SPI Litigation Direct, another Manila-based BPO that specializes in legal transcription services; Rosalie Montenegro, senior vice president of the Call Center Business Group (e-PLDT) under PLDT (Montenegro is also currently president of the two e-PLDT owned call centers, namely, Parlance and Vocativ); William Tanenbaum, international chair of the Technology, Intellectual Property, and Outsourcing Group at the law firm of Kaye Scholer; and Dan Shimabuku, managing director of Hanson Advisors, LLC, a California-based consulting firm that helps companies looking to outsource back-office operations such as accounting systems, web services, payroll, disaster recovery and call centers.

All private sector speakers volunteered for the conference, using their own time and resources.

Philippine ambassador to the United States Alberto del Rosario addressed the conference, highlighting the dynamic partnership between government and the private sector in developing the IT sector as an economic driver.

“Outsourcing in the Philippines has never made more business sense than today,” Del Rosario said. “Americans love the Philippines and feel comfortable there — more than 200,000 Americans work and live in the Philippines today — and the government is fully committed to making it easier for American companies to conduct business there.”

After the conference proper, the participating U.S. companies eagerly responded to the one-on-one meetings arranged by the organizers with the speakers. Many of these companies considered the one-on-one meetings as part of their due diligence study on the Philippines as an alternative outsourcing destination.