I've been so hung up on watching China as the possible next big center for enterprise off-shoring that I seem to have missed the fact that the Phillipines have already shot up to second place behind India in outsourcing revenues.

This makes perfect sense from a call-center outsourcing perspective: the Phillipines have a deeper base of English speakers, legacy of a distant American occupation and close relationships between the two countries up to and following the Second World War. Filipino culture is also conducive to good customer service, a frequent obstacle to call-center off-shoring operations. Land and labor costs are lower than India, saving more overhead for operators.

Despite the article's citation of high numbers of college graduates available in the labor market there, however, I don't see more deeply technical off-shoring moving to the Phillipines anytime soon over the heads of India or China. The array of technical talent and home-brew IT industry still isn't as expansive as anything available in either of those countries. We've already examined why China faces significant challenges competing with India simply due to a lack of experienced project managers and other mid-level technology management... the Phillipines is even harder pressed to marshal such resources without a strong domestic IT market. So while they may continue to expand their call center role, I continue to see China as the dominant threat to India in the off-shoring market.