The province and city of Iloilo will lay down the red carpet to welcome business process outsourcing (BPO) firm Atento, which is set to put up its first call center in the Philippines at the 72-hectare Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao District here.
“It is their first in the Philippines and we are happy that they chose Iloilo. It means more jobs in the countryside,” Joeven Tansi, executive director of the Iloilo Federation for Information Technology (I-FIT), said in an interview on Thursday.
Tansi said they will provide services that would help ease their entry to Iloilo similar to what has been afforded to other investors before.
The firm has been on their radar and it is a blessing in disguise that President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has visited the United States and met with the president of Atento, a US-based firm with investments in parts of Latin America, he added.
Atento director of talent acquisition for the US Tyler Julian; global vice president of talent acquisition Jeff Luttrell; and manager in global of talent acquisition Diegon Galvan paid a courtesy visit to Mayor Jerry P. Treñas on Feb. 7.
During the courtesy visit, Treñas informed them of the advantages of the city, including its good quality students and graduates, minimal traffic, very approachable and responsive local government officials and bureaucracy, business-friendly environment, and good peace and order situation, among others.
“Iloilo City is getting known as a top BPO destination. Let us do everything possible it stays that way,” Treñas said in a Viber message.
He added that while the city has reliable power distribution and power supply, it also needs the support of the national government to improve transmission.
Megaworld vice president and head of public relations and media affairs Harold Brian Geronimo, in a separate interview on Thursday, said they are very happy to hear the news because it is fresh from New York and it was the President who announced it.
Geronimo said Kevin Andrew Tan, chief executive officer of the Alliance Global Group, which is the parent company of Megaworld, joined the President in the state visit and is thus sure the BPO investment was one of those discussed during their meeting with the business community in New York.
He said they are fast-tracking two more office towers at the Iloilo Business Park (IBP) Enterprise 1 and Enterprise 2, which when completed would offer about 77,000 square meters of gross leasable space.
“We have received a lot of inquiries for BPO spaces in IBP even until now. A lot of them from Manila and even abroad are really looking into Iloilo Business Park as their preferred location for Iloilo,” he said.
The IBP currently hosts 10 BPO firms and most are first-time locators in Iloilo.
Tansi, meanwhile, said there is still room for more investors to relocate to Iloilo although there is a need to upskill their talent requirements.
As of February, Iloilo province and city host 103 BPOs, 20 of which are big companies. (PNA)
