The information technology-business process management (IT-BPM) sector aims to breach the $40-billion revenue mark in 2025, the head of the sector association said.
Jack Madrid, president of the IT Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event in Makati City on Monday the basis of the association’s optimism is the surge in interest from multinational companies that have expressed the desire to establish their operations in the Philippines. These companies are mainly from the US.
Financial services and health information management services will be the main drivers of growth for the sector, Madrid said.
The IBPAP roadmap released in 2023 shows the baseline targets for 2028 are set at $48.5 billion in revenues and 2.1 million for FTE count.
The industry is expected to exceed its baseline targets on the IBPAP roadmap 2023-2028, Madrid said.
The roadmap targets will be updated in the middle of the year, but Madrid said he is confident that the industry will cross over two million workers in the next 12 to 18 months.
But revenues, which serve as the more important measure, will breach $40 billion by the end of the year.
In 2024, the IT-BPM sector recorded $38 billion in revenues, up 7 percent from $35.5 billion in 2023.
The industry generated 120,000 additional jobs in 2024, ending the year with 1.82 million full-time employees from 1.7 million in 2023.
Madrid said he and his team talk to investors who want to increase their operations in the Philippines or establish new operations.
“We need to upskill, reskill, and cross-skill our talent. We have the demographics. We have 700,000 university graduates a year. We need them to be employable,” he added.
IBPAP’s members are now about 1,000 and they must invest in retraining their existing workforce for the industry to grow.
“We must make sure that the upcoming generation of job seekers have relevant skills for the new work types of the future, because the work that we do keeps changing, not just because of AI (artificial intelligence), but the nature of work always changes,” Madrid said.
Asked if the interest of American companies indicates the industry is unfazed by the transfer of IT-BPM companies to the US, Madrid said: “We should be scared about not being skilled enough. That’s the only thing I’m concerned about.”
“We have the brand. The Philippines is very strong. We’re world leader,” Madrid added.
While the US reciprocal tariffs will not directly impact the IT-BPM industry, “the problem now is the uncertainty of it all,” he said.
Although there was no tariff imposed on America’s trading partners during the previous administration of President Donald Trump, Madrid said the industry was affected by the move of IT-BPM jobs back to the US.
Today, Madrid said, the world is totally different as technology has changed everything.
