Today, news broke out that the Philippines placed first in a study of the best countries in Business English. Of course the media would talk first to the industry that gets affected, the Call Center Industry and most definitely the industry leaders were delighted about the news.
Prior to the release of this study me and a friend of mine were talking about the same industry on how I think it measures the standard of living and the general health of the Philippine economy.
So what was on my mind? Here it is
The call center industry prospers because of two things the quality of work that Filipinos provide and the low cost of labor compared to first world countries.
My conclusion? We as Filipinos should look at the call center industry as temporary industry. Why? Because if we use the call center as measurement of our economy's health, as long as the call center industry is growing it just means that our own economy is not doing good.
If our economy is doing good, people with regular jobs will get as much as what we are getting in working for a call center instead of the measly minimum wage that most Filipinos are living at.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that call centers are bad for the economy I just used it to measure the state of our countries economy.
Because if our economy is at par with the first world countries we would earn as much as them right? And if our economy grows and people get the right salaries the low labor cost factor in investing the Philippines would be eliminated. Will this industry survive only because of quality? Possibly.
I may be wrong or something but that is how I see it. I just feel sad that the Philippines is dependent to this industry right now. But I hope that along with the growth of this industry, the government would teach the people working in the call center industry how to save and put up businesses. Yes new business, that is the only way that I see on how we could give the Philippines a real economy sustained by domestic market which may possibly give the country a much more stable economy as it may not get affected by factors abroad.
do you agree? or not?