THE Board of Investments (BoI) has approved a new contact center project involving an investment of P143.4 million in Cebu City, which will focus on healthcare information management services (HIMS).
In a statement on Tuesday, the BoI said that it has approved the registration of Optum Global Solutions (Philippines), Inc.’s contact center project, which is expected to create 350 full-time direct and indirect jobs. Workers will be allowed to work from home.
According to the BoI, the project will provide coding, testing, and maintenance services, as well as help-desk troubleshooting support.
The project will also offer call center services, back-office operations as well as transaction processing, clinical process services, analytics services, trending and reporting.
“The approval of this project in Cebu City proves that we are persistent in our efforts to enhance the growth of the country’s information technology and business process management (IT-BPM) industry, particularly in the HIMS sector,” Trade Undersecretary and BoI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo said.
Optum Global has seven projects registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority in Taguig City, Quezon City, Cebu City, and Muntinlupa City.
The company mainly supports a group company, Optum Technology, LLC, a US unit of UnitedHealth Group, Inc.
“We are further advancing the IT-BPM industry, and this is just the beginning of more investments being injected into the economy. We are on track to making more investment opportunities happen in the Philippines,” he added.
The BoI said that the proposed project is also expected to help create jobs in Cebu City, where the poverty rate was 26.9% in 2021.
“Maximizing the country’s valuable resources, the company picked the Philippines as the site for its new project because of the Filipino workforce that is recognized as competitive with high technical skills and a level of English proficiency,” the BoI said.
“As of 2021, the HIMS industry accounted for (around $3.1 billion in revenue), providing jobs to over 200,000 Filipinos. The persisting pandemic did not hamper the positive outlook for the HIMS industry, as revenue is projected to grow by 7.3% to 10%,” it added. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
