Economy

An archipelago of 7107 islands that spans an area of 300,000 sq km, the Republic of the Philippines lies south of Taiwan and east of Vietnam, and is bounded in the west by the South China Sea and in the south by the Sulu and Celebes Seas. With a complex history marked by successive waves of migration and periods of colonisation and occupation...

President Rodrigo Duterte assumed his six-year term as the 16th president of the Republic of the Philippines on June 30, 2016. A last minute candidate, Rodrigo Duterte won the May 2016 elections by a wide margin to become the first president from Mindanao, the country’s southernmost and second-largest island. Elections not only brought about a...

The Philippines’ business process outsourcing (BPO) sector is an economic powerhouse and one of the largest white-collar employers in the country. It benefits from over a decade of pro-investment government policies, a young and well-educated workforce, and rising foreign investment in both third-party contact centres and global in-house call...

With rental rates in Metro Manila rising from $21.80 per sq foot in 2014 to over $31 in 2016 and the majority of new graduates located outside of the capital, the Philippines’ business process outsourcing (BPO) industry is increasingly looking to decentralise investment and activities to a portfolio of emerging secondary cities.