Wipro [Get Quote] Technologies, the global IT services arm of Wipro Limited, has opened a BPO centre in Cebu in the Philippines as part of its strategy to build global delivery capabilities.

Wipro plans to hire more than 900 employees for its 45,000 sq ft Cebu facility, which started handling customer-focussed support processes yesterday. The company is also looking at establishing additional centres in other fast-growing cities in the Philippines.

The centre in Cebu will offer an exhaustive range of services to Wipro's customers. The focus will be both on voice and non-voice business in the field of customer service support, technical support, HR services, financial and accounting and procurement services, a company release said.

Bangalore-headquartered Wipro chose the Philippines among several other locations due to the availability of qualified talent in that country, it said. According to T K Kurien, president, Wipro BPO, "The Philippines is one of the largest English speaking nations with a strong IT orientation and a talent pool of 29 million. This is one location that we definitely want to expand our presence in." Wipro's choice of Cebu as its newest BPO destination highlights the Philippines emergence as a leading global outsourced service hub.

Earlier this year, investment advisory firm Tholons identified Manila among the top five prime outsourcing destinations and Cebu as one of the leading emerging global destinations for outsourced processes. Tholon's study also revealed that the outsourcers consider process maturity, availability of relevant skills and cost as the top reasons for deciding on the locations for IT and BPO service outsourcing.

"Our business objective is to enable delivery of multi-lingual services to our global customer base. With a strong and robust game plan for the year, we are very clear in announcing Wipro's arrival towards global serviceability and the Philippines is a major milestone in this journey," said Sanjeev Bhatia, vice president, International Operations, Wipro BPO.