Call Center News : iQor Expands in Philippines

Clark Expansion Announced at Meeting with President Arroyo; New Center of Excellence Will Create 700 New Jobs

At a meeting in New York City with Philippine President Gloria Arroyo, iQor President and CEO Vikas Kapoor announced the opening of iQor’s third call center in the Philippines that will create 700 new jobs. iQor plans to hire 300 new employees at its new Center of Excellence at the Clark Special Economic Zone before the end of the year and will add the remaining new hires by the end of the first quarter in 2009. This growth will bring total jobs created by iQor in the Philippines to 2,500 since opening its first call center in Manila in 2005.

iQor is one of the premier call center services companies in the world and the Philippines plays a major role in its strategic expansion. This is iQor’s second call center within the Clark Special Economic Zone. The first Clark Center opened in August of 2006 with 50 employees. After only two years, iQor reached full capacity at the facility and has now opened a new state-of-the-art 32,000 square foot Center to meet growing client demands. Read the rest of this entry »

Australia donates money to help Philippine typhoon victims

Australia announced Thursday it has donated an initial 500,000 Australian dollars (478,000 U.S. dollars) to the Philippines National Red Cross to help the typhoon victims.

Typhoon Fengshen struck the Philippines last week, leaving more than 280 people dead.

An AusAid officer has been dispatched to the disaster area to determine how much further assistance will be required, reported Australian Associated Press.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has sent a letter of condolence to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Jollibee acquires Taiwanese restaurant chain

Philippine fast-food giant Jollibee Foods Corp. announced Friday it had acquired 70 percent of Taiwanese restaurant chain Lao Dong for 61.1 million pesos (1.37 million dollars).

In a disclosure to the stock exchange, the publicly-listed Jollibee said that as part of the sale, it would invest an additional 30.6 million pesos while Lao Dong’s owners would put 13.1 million pesos into the new joint venture.

The new venture will work to expand Lao Dong’s restaurant chain in Taiwan and China.

The owners of Lao Dong will help Jollibee develop food products and other services for its business units in China, the Philippines and other countries.

Jollibee is the biggest restaurant chain in the Philippines, operating almost 1,500 outlets for its signature Jollibee hamburgers along with pizzas, baked goods, French pastries and other dishes.

It has 194 outlets abroad including China, the United States, Dubai and Indonesia.

Lao Dong, a full-service restaurant specialising in noodles, has eight outlets in Taipei, the disclosure said.

Last year, Jollibee Foods Corp. acquired the Chinese restaurant chain Hongzhuangyuan for about 50.5 million dollars.

Samsung to build billion-dollar chip plant in Philippines

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics is to invest one billion dollars in a “state-of-the-art” microchip manufacturing facility in the Philippines, it was reported Friday.

The Manila Bulletin newspaper said the facility will be built on a 30-hectare (74-acre) site in the Clark Special Economic Zone near the former US airforce base north of Manila.

Quoting unnamed sources, the paper said “it will be a state-of-the-art” facility with construction starting “within the year.”

At present, Samsung has two operations in the country, Samsung Electronics Philippines Manufacturing Corp. and Samsung Electronics Philippines Corp.

The entry of Samsung in Clark will boost the zone as a hub for electronics chipmaking, an unnamed official said.

“This means the country can move upstream to design and manufacturing, as opposed to the low value-added testing and packaging operations,” the official said. Read the rest of this entry »

Cebu Pacific Air permanently cuts domestic airfares

Cebu Pacific (CEB) announced it is reducing its domestic fares permanently by as much as 32% to encourage more people to fly amid rising fuel prices.

Candice Iyog, CEB Vice President for Marketing and Product, said the new lower all-inclusive fares will take effect on 12-Jun-08. This includes the fuel and insurance surcharge, aviation security fee and 12% VAT.

The ‘all-in’ pricing format is introduced with a seat sale across CEB’s domestic network. The promotional offer will run from 12-Jun-08 to 17-Jun-08 and is valid for travel on 01-Jul-08 to 15-Oct-08. There are more than half a million seats allocated for this promotion.

‘All-in’ fares for short sectors such as Manila-Legaspi are at P699 one-way while a one-way Manila-Cebu flight would cost P999 and a Manila-Davao sector would cost only P1,499 during the seat sale. At seat sale levels, these reduction represent savings of up to 56% over today’s rate. Read the rest of this entry »

US Ambassador Kristie Kenney wows Calbayog City, turns over $20-M projects to Samar

In an unprecedented gesture of goodwill and friendship to Calbayog City, the United States of America Ambassador to the Philippines visited Calbayog City yesterday.

Kristie Kenney served as Guest of Honor during the closing ceremonies of Pacific Partnership 2008, a humanitarian mission rendered by the US Navy.

In her speech, Kenney said that it was her first time to visit Samar and Calbayog City and she is pleased with the extra-ordinary warmth afforded to her by Samarnons led by Calbayog City Mayor Mel Senen Sarmiento.

She added that the friendship shared by her country and the Philippines began in 1987 when the US Naval Ship came to Samar to provide assistance and to interact with the people of Samar.

She added that the Samar acceptance of her people doing missionary work could win any award on friendship.

The US Navy ship docked some kilometers away from Calbayog Port has loaded the Seabees (aka US Navy servicemen) who extended engineering, dental and medical services to some 26 thousand Filipinos in Cotabato and Samar. Read the rest of this entry »

3 RP wonders now in top 5 in worldwide search for ‘7 Wonders of Nature’

Not only in the Top Ten but in the Top Five - what with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself leading the charge to have the country’s natural wonders get into the world’s list of modern-day Wonders of Nature.

Yes - not one, not two, but three of the four Philippine entries are now in the Top Five in the world-wide search for the modern-day Seven Wonders of Nature.

As of June 11, (Wednesday) Tubbataha Reef east of Palawan is now Number 2 in the list, followed by the Chocolate Hills at Number 3; while the Underground River in Palawan is at Number 5.

Tubbataha Reef, an atoll coral reef in the Sulu Sea east of Palawan, is a marine sanctuary protected by the Philippine government as the Tubbataha Reef National Marine Park.

The reef is composed of two atolls - the North and South Reefs which each have a single small islet that protrudes from the water. Read the rest of this entry »

ExxonMobil plans Philippines oil exploration project

United States oil giant ExxonMobil plans to conduct exploratory operations in the Sulu Sea in the Philippines, company and government officials said Friday.

The company is evaluating seismic data taken from the project area, ExxonMobil Exploration Co. vice president Stephen Greenlee told reporters after calling on President Gloria Arroyo and Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes here.

If the data is encouraging, the company would drill exploration wells from mid-2009, he added.

The Philippines now imports practically all of its oil requirements after some modest offshore deposits that were tapped during the 1970s energy crisis were exhausted.

“A drilling programme could cost over 100 million dollars for us to explore the potential,” Greenlee said. Read the rest of this entry »

Two English-usage books by award-winning author now off the press

A new book on English usage by National Book Award-winning author Jose Carillo, “The 10 Most Annoying English Grammar Errors,” went off the press last May 15 together with the second updated edition of his award-winning and bestselling first book, “English Plain and Simple: No-Nonsense Ways to Learn Today’s Global Language.”

Carillo’s new 122-page book consists of incisive, no-holds-barred critiques of the most vexing grammar and usage errors that crop up in today’s newspapers and magazines as well as in the broadcast media and on the web. The 498-page “English Plain and Simple,” which won the National Book Award in linguistics from the Manila Critics’ Circle in 2005, seeks to help nonnative English speakers improve their written English without having to go back to the classroom.

Both books may be browsed at www.manilatimes.net/josecarillobooks  and may be purchased at quantity discounts at books@manilatimes.net .

Foxgate Solutions Expands Operations in Cebu City, Philippines

Foxgate Solutions, Inc., a world-wide provider of integrated business process outsourcing (BPO) and contact center solutions, announced its expansion of its call center in Cebu City, Philippines. The center is already catering to many clients in the United States, United Kingdom, and the Philippines with operations in Inbound, Outbound, Interactive, Appointment Setting, Billing Solutions, Event Registration, Consumer Lead Generation, Consumer Sales, Customer Service, Dealer Locate and Referral Service, Help Desk, Market Research and Reviews, Order Taking, Surveys, Technical Support, and Website Receptionist Service. With the expansion, it is expected that Foxgate is going to spur more growth. Read the rest of this entry »