The Philippines' top diplomat in China is hopeful that the recent bilateral meeting between President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Chinese President Xi Jinping will yield more job opportunities for Filipino customer service providers.
With the signing of an agreement that will allow Filipinos to get technology and technological knowledge from China, Ambassador Jaime FlorCruz is expecting that Chinese companies will start hiring Filipinos as their backbone for customer support.
"Call center po halimbawa. Marami pong chinese companies, IT companies na nagre-rely, na kailangan ng customer service (For example, in the call center industry—many Chinese Information Technology companies rely on and need customer service)," FlorCruz said in a Laging Handa briefing.
"Pero mahina po ang kanilang English staff, halimbawa. So, pwede po tayo doong makapasok, na magkaroon ng agreement with Chinese IT companies para Pilipino ang magiging backbone nila ng call center (But because they have weak English staff, we might have an agreement with Chinese IT companies to hire Filipino workers to become their backbone in their call center)," he added.
The IT industry is only one of the industries that were strengthened following Marcos' three-day state visit to China. Among other industries were agriculture and infrastructure, where more opportunities are expected to be generated for Filipinos.
Meanwhile, FlorCruz said the Philippine Embassy in China will push for people-to-people exchanges between the two countries for this year.
The embassy will initiate programs that will encourage Filipinos to learn the Chinese science, arts, and language, considering that the Asian neighbor has had many breakthroughs in such fields.