Philippines receives Offshoring Destination of the Year Award for 2010

The Philippines has yet again established its coveted position as one of the world's leading global outsourcing centers when it was awarded the Offshoring Destination of the Year Award for 2010.

The honor was given during the awards night of the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) Awards Night, held at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London last October 22.

Having received the award in 2007 and 2009, the Philippines made its mark in the global outsourcing industry for the third time.  Other nominees included Egypt, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine.

Receiving the award on behalf of the Philippine outsourcing industry and the DTI were Commercial Attaché Michael Alfred V. Ignacio and Trade of Investment Representative Vicente A. Casim of the Philippine Trade and Investment Center in London.

The NOA Awards highlighted the Philippines' strengths.

"With its abundant graduate workforce, the Philippines is becoming a veritable offshore giant for the UK BPO market," it said.

It also gave full importance and recognition to the country's 92 percent literary rate, 36 million labor force with 450,000 university level graduates per year (about 100,00 of them finance and accounting graduates) and the ability to understand and speak English with a neutral  and understandable accent.

The country's world-class telecommunications infrastructure and unparalleled government support in the form of Income Tax Holidays of up to six years and other fiscal and non-fiscal incentives also heavily boosted the country's chances.

The board of judges also gave due importance to the flat 5 percent income tax rate on gross income for locators of office buildings and installations accredited as Philippine IT economic zones, after the initial 4-6 years of Income Tax Holiday has passed.

This year's excellent winning entry was prepared and submitted by the Board of Investments in cooperation with the Philippine Outsourcing Industry, Business Process Association Philippines and other major players.

The NOA has been operating for over 20 years and is the only well-established and recognized outsourcing trade association in the UK.

It is also one of the founding bodies of and prime movers behind the European Outsourcing Association.

The NOA Awards are held every year to give recognition to best practices in the UK outsourcing industry.  This year, there were 17 categories in contention. (DFA)

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