Japan's MUFG Bank, Ltd. on Thursday inaugurated in the Philippines its first Global Services Operations Center (GSOC) to improve the productivity and efficiency of its overseas operations.

The bank's first GSOC, set to begin operating in August with around 80 personnel, will initially perform foreign remittance and back office operations for its units in Singapore, Sydney, Auckland and Taipei, MUFG said in a statement.

MUFG Bank is a member of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., which has over 2,000 offices in more than 50 countries.

"We chose Manila as the site for our center out of 12 candidate cities in six countries. And it was all for the right business reasons: a strong economic foundation; attractive, justifiable cost; high quality workforce; and many other standard factors," Kanetsugu Mike, president and CEO of MUFG Bank, said at the center's launch ceremony at its office in the Philippine financial district of Makati.

"We're looking to add other units in Asia and ways to collaborate with our units in EMEA (an acronym for Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and the Americas," Mike also said.

MUFG Bank, formerly known as the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, established a representative office in Manila in 1953, was granted offshore banking unit status in 1977, and a full banking license in 1995.

In 2016, it acquired a 20 percent stake in the local Security Bank, enhancing its regional footprint.

Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda, speaking at the launch ceremony, said opening a GSOC in Manila "is such a wise move on the part of the MUGG Bank, considering the role of the Philippines in the field of business process outsourcing (BPO) worldwide."

"BPO continues to be a sunshine industry that fuels Philippine economic growth," he said.