Sometime ago Gov Edgar Chatto stated that he wanted to bring Business Process Outsourcing, BPO, to Bohol. This is to take advantage of the presence of fiber optics facilities provided by a telecommunications company, which would enable Bohol to be connected to the international data highway. However, the province does yet not have the means to take advantage of the situation... we still do not have a call center. A Jagna bred civil engineer working for one of the biggest real estate developers of the country had been constructing call centers all over the Philippines, said that a call center costs millions and most of them were built with multinational capital. Unless there will be big investors interested in putting up a call center here, we cannot do business with the international companies.

However, BPO does not mean only call centering. While call centering takes care of reservations usually in hotels, airlines, placing orders and other processes, which requires a query – response action or use of specialized facilities like inputting data or running computer operations, there are other fields in the BPO, which could be done outside the center. Software coding jobs, computer programming, software engineering, network design and Web development could be home based operations. This does not need extensive computer facilities. In Nueva Ecija years ago, a local businessman contracted a sewing and embroidery job with a foreign firm. The finished samples and raw materials – the patterns drawn on the cloth to be embroidered - were shown to the housewives. Those interested and most of them took on the job. Under strict quality control, they were paid by the piece thus providing additional household income.

This arrangement could be replicated in rural areas with telecommunications facilities that could provide access to the international information network. Such as in Bohol. We have a base of highly trainable personnel and PCs for software projects could be readily obtainable. The Nueva\Ecija system could be modified so it could be adopted to BPO home based contracts. But it would need a feasibility study. Call us cynics but when feasibility studies are mentioned, allies kaput, still born, will not even reach the first stage. Research or anything with an element of risk is a no – no. If there is any study proposed, the usual question is ”what is in it for me?' When governments and corporations of newly industrialized and industrialized countries set aside a portion of the gross income for research we still stay in the “dawat limpyo” stage. On the top of that, a feasibility study only establishes decision factors to be satisfied before a project is attempted. Hopefully our gloomy concept is unfounded. There are a few, who are already in the home based BPO practice though their operations are very limited. Which means this business is possible here. With a fund of trainable manpower, strong agricultural base, not so high living standards and reliable industrial energy source, Bohol could share in the billions of dollars available in BPO jobs. We wonder if we could interest our congressman to fund a BPO feasibility study. Attention Mamerts Jimenes, the ball is in your court.