PASAY CITY, Philippines -- The upcoming US elections will not have much impact on the call center industry although it may be wise for local operators to look at other markets.

"Regardless of political concerns, we will continue to service our customers," said Exequiel Delgado, general manager for Verizon Business Philippines, a local unit of US telecom firm Verizon.

Delgado took part in a panel discussion and was joined by executives from companies outsourcing call center work to the Philippines.

"It will have little bearing," said Steve Gambrel, group vice president for Semperian (formerly Accutel), a unit of General Motors Acceptance Corp., the financing arm of US carmaker general Motors.

The company outsources customer support operations to ICT Group, which has operations in the country.

The two executives were joined by Mabini Quezon, onsite operations program manager Paypal, and Prabhakar Pakalpati, process director partner management at Dell International Services, which runs support facilities in the country.

All four panelists agree that political concerns in the US, brought about by the upcoming November elections, will not have much effect on their respective companies? outsourcing activities.

Outsourcing, they emphasized, remains largely a business strategy and will likely to continue as long as it makes business sense.

Dell's Pakalpati, meanwhile, said the local call center industry should instead see the elections as an opportunity to expand outside of the US.

"Business decision making tends to be slow after an election. It should be a good time for operators to look outside of the US and into markets like Europe and Australia," Pakalpati said.