Project to improve Cebu’s image as top spot for BPOs

The doubling of Megaworld Corp.’s investment for its Mactan Newtown Center project will help cement Cebu’s image as one of the world’s top outsourcing destinations.

Local businessmen and outsourcing stakeholders gave this observation after Megaworld recently inaugurated its 20-hectare property in Mactan and with Megaworld chief executive officer Andrew Tan’s commitment to double its investment for the project to P20 billion.

Joel Mari Yu, Cebu Investment Promotions Center’s managing director, said Megaworld’s Mactan Newton would be the best answer to worries of having too concentrated  outsourcing offices in Cebu City.

“I would like to say congratulations to Megaworld and thank you for having faith and confidence in Cebu. CIPC has committed to support them in anyway we can,” Yu said.

CIPC is an organization established in 1994 with the purpose of promoting Cebu to foreign direct investments.

According to Yu, last year there were 17 outsourcing companies that opened office in Cebu and this year they would be looking at about 24 new companies to open in Cebu.

Yu said Mactan Newtown would help provide more options for these companies who would  want to expand operations in Cebu.

1,000 Jobs

At least 1,000 jobs will be generated from the two new outsourcing companies that will be opening this April in One World Center, the first BPO building built in Mactan Newtown which already host the biggest McDonald’s restaurant in the Visayas.

On the sidelines of the grand launching held last Wednesday, Results Manila executives said that they would hire 600 people for their initial operations this April.

“We will grow that to at least a thousand over the next few years here,” said Results Manila director of accounts operations Justin Harmon.

Results Manila is a global company based in the US with three delivery centers in Metro Manila.

EnfraUSA, on the other, hand will need 400 people initially for their first office in Cebu, the third one in the country according to chief executive officer Ray Chiu.

Chiu said they would need people with experience on graphics and for voice and non-voice services.

REACTIONS

“The two new companies in Mactan Newtown is just the beginning of many more companies that we expect to come to Cebu especially with Cebu’s rise in ranking as 8th emerged outsourcing destination in the world as reported by Tholon’s Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations in the World for 2013,”  Yu said.

Other business group leaders agreed .

“It will definitely create jobs and development opportunities for Cebu. I do hope however that Lapu-Lapu City is ready for more developments and for the increased inflow of workers to the city,” Cebu Business Club president Gordon Alan Joseph said.

Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Prudencio Gesta said that Cebu would need more major developers investing for big ticket investments like Mactan Newtown in order to sustain the vibrant economic activities benefiting all sectors.