[SINGAPORE] With 60 per cent of the Philippines' outsourcing industry in call centres, businesses there are looking for a way to upgrade what contact centres can offer.

Speaking to BizIT on the sidelines of the CommunicAsia conference last week, president and CEO of the IT & Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), Jose Mari P Mercado, said that the country's call centre industry is a pillar of its outsourcing industry, and there is a strong push within to keep it competitive.

There were an estimated 900,000 call centre workers in the Philippines in 2013, and this pool is expected to grow to 1.3 million by 2016. By the end of this year, there will be about a million call centre workers in the Philippines, he said.