Truth and Xinhua

Every so often, the show falters. An assistant presses the wrong button, and we get a glimpse of the reality behind the curtain.

BEIJING, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- China's state-run news agency made a gaffe Thursday when it published an "in space" conversation among the Chinese astronauts even before they left Earth.

Xinhua news agency posted the story on its Web site well before the launch of the Shenzhou VII space craft, The Times of London reported.

The story, which was headlined "Sleepless Night on the Pacific, Sidelights on the Observation and Control of the 30th Lap of the Shenzhou 7 Spaceship," was removed from the Xinhua Web site and was described as a technical error.

As The Blue Marble Turns

If you want to view the history of the world for the past 50 years, in a way that combines hard statistical data with pleasing graphics, see this from the TED conference. You'll think twice about using "Third World" and "Developed World" after viewing it. And it will reinforce a theme that NYTimes columnist Thomas Friedman has been writing about: the world is flat.

Text CC Engine, Take 2

Economists at the Asian Development Bank nuanced their view on the Philippines.

"The Philippines has to learn how to walk on two legs," ADB economist Jesus Felipe told a briefing to release the bank's Asian Development Outlook 2007, referring to the need for the country to build a strong industrial base to support the economy.

He said while the services sector has been a major driver of economic growth in recent years, the Philippines cannot simply bypass industrialization. He noted that countries such as China and South Korea grew quickly because they increased industry's share of economic output and employment.

"It is highly unlikely that the advent of BPO services signals a paradigm shift that will put the Philippine economy on a higher trajectory," the ADB said.

Most revenue in the Philippine BPO sector comes from call center operations, with only 13% coming from information technology-related work, compared to 70% in India.

Kearney Ranks

First the good news for BPOers, not just those in the Philippines but also in the rest of Asia.

The wage cost advantage of offshore locations for office services is set to last for another 20 years, says the latest annual survey by global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney. Even though wages in offshore locations for services, such as IT, business processes and call centers, have started to rise, they will remain cheaper for the foreseeable future under the most aggressive projections of wage inflation and currency appreciation in developing countries.

But for Team Philippines, which slipped to eighth in the rankings of 50 countries as BPO locations, there's already a bright, neon-colored warning.

The findings also send a message to policy-makers in both developed and developing countries: The key to maintaining and enhancing long-term competitiveness lies in skills development, infrastructure investment and the regulatory environment, not in attempts to control wages. Virtually every country in the Index, even those that fell in the rankings, improved their absolute score in the last year — confirming that competition is intensifying, and simply maintaining current performance levels is no longer sufficient to attract and retain the world's fast-growing remote services business.

The theme remains the same: it's still early days for the BPO industry in the Philippines. Yet while the team has yet to peak, it's prudent to introduce some paranoia about competition. Whether BPO remains an engine of growth for the economy, or putters out in five years' time as other locations step up their game, hinges on the decisions being made today as we go from the amateur ranks to the pro leagues.

Dowload the study here.

Freedom and Democracy

Today's entry is a diversion from the usual topics in this blog, but nonetheless important in the grand scheme of things. Just for the heck of it, those two words are the title of this entry. This is no soliloquy on human rights or paean to liberty, just a simple exercise in freedom of expression. Wired says not all are so fortunate.

It's also a trade-off that Yahoo is not alone in making. To comply with government requirements, Google's China search engine blocks access to sites the government deems objectionable. Microsoft launched its Chinese blogging service in 2005 with filters that prohibited sensitive words such as freedom and democracy in blog titles. And Cisco supplies internet backbone equipment the Chinese government uses in the so-called Great Firewall that shields citizens from websites about Tibet and the Tiananmen Square massacre.