The Philippines has one of the highest literacy rates in the world, with high enrolment into college and non-degree vocational and technical training. English is spoken throughout and little training is needed to adapt to pronunciation and vocabulary to international requirements, thus an English speaking Filipino can often speak with clear American accent. In addition, the population is well travelled and there is a skill base fluent in many other languages. The friendly attitude of the Filipino people is known throughout the world.

The Philippines is a democracy with a long history of association with particularly the American and Spanish cultures. As in many other countries there is the occasional outbreak of aggression, but in the Philippines this has been confined to provincial areas in the far south of the country.

The Philippines at a glance:

• The Philippines is the third-largest English speaking nation in the world, their government having estimated that the country could capture as much as 50% of the total world’s English-speaking market in 2008
• The Philippines also captures a considerably large percentage of the total world market share in contact centre services. The Information and Communications Technology division of the Board of Investment in Thailand reported that the call centre industry experienced a growth rate of 70% in as early as 2005, making it the most dynamic of all sectors in the Philippine information technology industry
• They offer a highly developed telecommunications infrastructure, with excellent service, fibre optic technology and bandwidth availability
• Today, over 500 international companies operate from the Philippines and according to industry forecasts, more than a million Filipinos would be employed in the call centre industry, with more than US$12 billion in revenues in the year 2010

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