Amazon Operation Services Philippines, Inc. (AOSPI) is expanding its footprint in the Philippines by investing P524.33 million for its virtual customer services (VCS) project in the country.
The Board of Investments (BOI) has approved the project as a new services export provider for its VCS project in its new business site in Pasay City. Prior to this project, AOSPI has three existing sites across the Philippines: two in Cebu City and one in Metro Manila.
The VCS project, which will start commercial operations in September 2022, will provide customer and vendor management services to support Amazon’s global retail business and sellers.
AOSPI provides various support services such as remote technical support services, IT development, customer support, customer care services, business process outsourcing, and back-office support, which includes but not limited to systems, hardware, software, and human resources relating to the back-office, among others.
According to the BOI, AOSPI has prioritized the Philippines for its new investments, owing to the high technical skills and level of English proficiency of the Filipino workforce.
Notably, the project will adopt 100 percent work-from-home operations for its contact center agents. The said VCS project is set to expand AOSPI’s current operation in the remote workplace not just as a response to the persisting pandemic, which necessitates a hybrid workspace combining both on-site and remote operations, but following the global work trends as well.
Based on the project’s multiplier values, it is projected to generate 1,058 jobs for Filipinos, with P959.5 million contribution to the economy and P616.9 million to household income.
“The approval of this project shows that we are not faltering in our efforts to advance the IT-business process management (IT-BPM) industry in the country. This is just the start of more investments being injected into the country’s economy, specifically into the IT-BPM industry. We are making it happen in the Philippines,” said Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo.
Based on the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) for 2018 to 2022, the IT-BPM is a key export sector of the country. In addition, the said project is forecasted to beef up the realization of the PEDP 2018-22 end-period target for exports of goods and services.
The IT-BPM is among the industries that have been actively promoted by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to increase the country’s export. In 2021, the country’s IT-BPM industry recorded an estimated revenue haul of $29.5 billion, a 10.6 percent jump from the previous year. The industry’s full-time employees (FTEs) also soared by 120,000 in 2021, bringing the sector’s total headcount to 1.44 million, registering a growth of 9.1 percent compared to 2020.