BPO catering to Arab nations to rise in Maguindanao

By Noel Punzalan and Edwin Fernandez

Philippine News Agency

BULUAN, Maguindanao, March 3, 2018 -- A Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) center is rising in this Maguindanao town to serve Arab clients, the first in the region and the country.

“It will be operational later this year or early 2019,” Maguindanao Governor Esmael Toto Mangudadatu told reporters here Friday, noting that the PHP200-million infrastructure will house a call center, commercial center, a hotel and movie houses, all rolled into one.

A PHP100-million loan obtained from Land Bank of the Philippines and an equal amount from the provincial government would fund the project.

Buluan is the capital of Maguindanao and home of the Mangudadatu political clan.

On Friday, Mangudadatu and LBP President Alex Buenaventura led the groundbreaking ceremony for the project here.

“Maguindanao and this town will become the call center hub of ARMM and the country exclusively to serve Arab nations,” he said, adding that the call center will be manned by Islamic scholars or Ustadzes and workforce with expertise in Arabic.

The ambitious project, to be manned by a women’s cooperative, is expected to generate work for more than 1,200 people, prioritizing graduate scholars of Maguindanao’s provincial government.

“We would like to help the province improve to be at par with other regions,” Buenaventura said. (PNA/Photo by PEO-Maguindanao)