CONVERGYS Corp. announced Thursday it will possibly build another site in Bacolod either in the last quarter of the year or in the first quarter of 2008 as part of its expansion in the Philippines.

Clint Streit, executive vice president, global operations, customer care of Convergys Corp., said during a media briefing that local operation of Convergys has impressed the Cincinnati, Ohio-based outsourcing firm. He cited the head office is amazed at how Convergys Philippines achieved huge growth since opening in early 2003. “We have a great and impressive start and at the same time, the government is very supportive of the industry.”

Streit said the Philippine office has been the star as far as global operations are concerned. “When I look across the globe, I would say the Philippines is growing faster than any other office in the world,” Streit pointed out.

“The growth rate that we get from the Philippines is the highest in the world today,” he added. He did not provide financial details of their operations here.

In recognition of the Convergys Philippines’ good performance, the head office through Streit honored the best performers of the company and the company itself.

“If you look at the Philippines, 2006 was a record year all year round, we started in 2003 with nothing and after less than five years we have an excess of 10,000 employees,” he said.

Convergys will also have an integrated contact center in Cebu city as part of its expansion program. The integrated contact center is expected to be fully operational in the latter part of the first quarter of 2007.

Marife Zamora, vice president and country manager of Convergys Philippines, said the Convergys’ capacity in Cebu City will be nearly doubled. The existing Banawa operations in the province has about 800 employees.

Convergys will invest $8,000 to $10,000 per seat in the Cebu facility.

Upon the completion of this facility, Convergys will have eight of the largest, multiclient,  American-owned company contact centers in the Philippines. The new Cebu facility will provide both general support and advanced technical help desk services to a variety of Convergys clients through traditional voice calling, e-mail and Web chat as well as “back office” application and document processing.

Zamora said the citation given by the head office has reinforced the status of the Philippines as a premier outsourcing site.

“The nearly 10,000 employees in our existing contact centers in the Philippines have reinforced our strong belief that the Philippines [can offer] a motivated workforce of highly-dedicated, well-educated, English-speaking professionals and the infrastructure needed to deliver world-class customer care,” said Zamora.

SMART Communications Inc., the biggest mobile-phone company in the Philippines, raised P5 billion through its fixed-rate corporate note issue with five- and 10-year tenors to fund its network expansion.

PHILIPPINE stocks rose to the highest in more than a decade after the country’s investment rating was raised by advisers to the California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers), the largest US pension fund.

THE board of directors of Manila Water Co., Inc. (MWCI) approved on Thursday an increase in the company’s dividend payout ratio to 30 percent from only 25 percent in previous years.

CONVERGYS Corp. announced Thursday it will possibly build another site in Bacolod either in the last quarter of the year or in the first quarter of 2008 as part of its expansion in the Philippines.

Although they have the biggest stake in Al-Almanah Bank, the country’s only bank that practices the Muslim’s sharia law of not charging interest for loans extended, Development Bank of the Philippines and Social Security System have only one representative each in the board.