Manila is the political, educational and commercial capital of the Philippines. The city which is also often referred to as Metro Manila is a pulsating metropolis which is made of several smaller cities like Makati, Passay, Quezon, Caloocan and Pasig. Manila which was founded in 1571 by the Spanish Conquistadors has a rich history associated with it and the evidence of its Spanish rule is present until today in the form of a walled enclave called the Intramuros, which is the original Spanish settlement of Manila that is located on the southern bank of the Passig River.

Manila suffered considerably during the years of the Second World War and it was rebuilt after the war with much US aid. Today this bustling urban center is home to approximately 11 million people (20 million if you include its suburbs) and like other cities in the developing world it is a city of great contrasts where huge mansions coexist with squatter slums. However in spite of these glaring contrasts and inequalities, Manila today features prominently as a global outsourcing and business processing hub.

In 2006, the Philippines which has the third largest English-speaking population in the world raked in revenues of $2.1 billion from its outsourcing industry as it was ranked third behind India and China in a global outsourcing survey. It is estimated that the BPO (business process outsourcing) business in the Philippines will earn as much as US$11 billion in 2010 as it will employ more than 900,000 people. This BPO boom in the Philippines is currently being led by the demand for offshore call centers by western companies who are looking to cut costs.

Wages in the Philippines are typically less than a fifth of that in the US and local communication, electricity and housing costs are also 50% lower in the Philippines when compared to US. Foreign companies who currently outsource their business to the Philippines estimate that they will reap substantial savings in the form of 30 to 40% business cost savings, 15 to 30% call center service savings and 35 to 50% application systems and software development savings. Manila is at the heart of the outsourcing business in the Philippines as it conducts much of this business in its two main business hubs of Makati and Ortigas and its call center hub in Quezon City.

However the recent growth spurt in the outsourcing industry in the Philippines has not been fueled by the traditional low value added call centers but more high end outsourcing services like legal services, medical transcription, software development, finance and accounting, shared services and web design and animation. These services require educated and skilled labor which country seems to have in abundance. The Philippine government has also done its part in promoting this outsourcing industry as it has offered several fiscal and non fiscal incentives to attract foreign direct investment in this industry.

As result of all these factors, many large and small companies now outsource some or all of their business processes to the Philippines whose labor quality ranked is fourth among all the Asian nations according to a survey conducted by the U.S. based Meta Group. The capital city of Manila which is extremely expatriate friendly is the epicenter of the outsourcing business of the Philippines as it offers state-of-the-art telecommunications facilities as well as adequate and uninterrupted power supply and abundant ready-to-occupy office and production facilities, computer security and building monitoring systems all which have been established in its specialized economic zones which have been especially setup to facilitate this booming BPO business.

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