Envoy: US call centers likely to stay in RP despite global meltdown

MANILA, Philippines - Despite the global financial meltdown, American call centers in the Philippines are more likely to stay than fold up, US ambassador Kristie Ann Kenney assured Thursday. In an interview on dzBB radio, Kenney said this will be part of President-elect Barack Obama's program as part of efforts to shore up businesses in the US. "The economists will tell you a good call center industry helps with jobs in America as well because it's the services provided that grow the businesses. If you bought a US product and are dealing with a service center in the Philippines you get good service and you say I might buy another one of their products, so you actually create jobs by having these good call centers," Kenney said. The official said American businesses will thus continue to look to provide great service to their customers and get customers because of their service. These call centers have proved really effective at that, she added. "And the Filipino employees there are tremendous. They are amazing and talented, they are natural customer representatives," Kenney noted. Kenney also reassured the Philippines of a "strong relationship and possibly even stronger" with the US under Obama, who she said is a "fan of Southeast Asia." She noted that Obama is "a very global personality," having said in his acceptance speech that he wants to "reach out to our friends across the globe." "This is gonna be a president who's gonna reach out to our friends across the world," Kenney said. - GMANews.TV