PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has welcomed the decision of business process outsourcing (BPO) company Atento to set up its first call center in the Philippines at the Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao, Iloilo.
Marcos told Atento officials in a meeting on Tuesday afternoon at the Blair House in Washington DC that they made the right decision in choosing the Philippines as their location as “Filipinos speak and write the best English.”
“I know it will be successful because it has been successful in the past. It has been a go-to industry for the Philippine government for quite a long time now,” Marcos said.
“I don’t see how it could be a problem since this is really a line of work that has become well established in the Philippines,” he added.
Marcos met with Atento President Fili Ledezma Soto and Chief Delivery Officer Josh Ashby at the Blair House as part of his official trip to the US.
Former president and Senior Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was present during the meeting along with House Speaker Ferdinand Romualdez, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Alfredo Pascual, Department of Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno, and Special Assistant to the President, Sec. Antonio Ernesto Lagdameo Jr.
Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez and DTI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo were also present during the meeting.
Atento officials assured the Chief Executive and the Philippine government officials of their commitment to start their call center in Iloilo.
Atento is a customer relationship management and business process outsourcing company operating in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Morocco, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay and the US.
Before this, Atento had met with the Philippine Board of Investments on July 15, 2022 to discuss its plans to establish a BPO company in the Philippines as it continuously coordinated with the BOI to discuss its registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Atento is projected to provide employment opportunities for around 554 workers in the first year and 665 workers in the second year, bringing in a significant investment of P21.4 million.
