THE Philippines is now the number one call center agent provider in the entire world, outnumbering erstwhile leader India, an official from the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) revealed on Friday.

DOTC Undersecretary Rene Limcaoco said that based on details provided to them by the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, the Philippines had 350,000 call center agents in 2011 compared to the 300,000 of India.

The end result is that the BPO-Information Technology industry is now emerging as the second biggest contributor to the local economy, following the remittance inflows from overseas Filipino workers. Limcaoco said that the BPO industry almost netted $9 billion in export revenues in 2011, or equivalent to 4.8 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

He said that if the trend continues and the income from the BPO industry continues to grow, the $11-billion target could be achieved by the time President Benigno Aquino 3rd ends his term in 2016.

Limcaoco added that the BPO industry could even equal the amount of remittances being sent by overseas Filipinos.