Outsource World, UK

Email from Jehan Ara, President PASHA, who is currently in the UK:

Jehan writes:
As some of you already know I am here in the UK at the invitation of the Oxford Internet Institute to participate in a panel discussion on the 17th and 18th of June.

I decided to come here a few days early so that I could check out Outsource World UK to see if things had changed since the last time that Pakistan participated. Today was the opening day and if it was any indication, then I am glad we decided not to participate. They had 4 different events going on in the same hall - Outsource World, Smart Business, Mobile Enterprise and Internet World, each one a very small event on its own and even together they didn't form a very large show. As for buyers, I didn't see many.

There were several country pavilions Romania's being the largest. Other country pavilions included China, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt and South Africa. The Indian companies that were represented were all very small players most of whom i had never heard of before - none of the big companies were represented, nor was Nasscom as an entity. The China pavilion was a very small one. Romanian companies were the largest in number - they are actually quite popular in terms of outsourcing from Europe. Their chunk of the outsourcing pie has grown quite a bit over the past two years especially from Germany. The UK and Germany are now equal in the amount of work that they outsource. The market size has grown by about 67% in the past year and is expected to at least match the US, if not surpass it, within the next year or so.

So although Outsource World doesn't seem to be the show to come to, we need to increase our marketing efforts to the UK and Europe.

Dubai made an announcement at Outsource World today. The CEO of Dubai Internet City says that they are launching Dubai Outsource Zone to add to their existing portfolio of the Internet City, Media City and Knowledge Village. They will provide the infrastructure that is needed for BPO/Call Centre set-ups. Some of the incentives similar to those availabe in their other zones are: 100% tax free, 100% ownership by foreigners, 100% repatriation of funds, Visas for workers on a 24 hour fastrack.

This was announced during the inaugural session. It was said that Dubai provides the environment, the stability and the efficiency required by most customers in Europe and the US. I wonder what this will mean for all of us. Apparently many large companies are already planning to open up offices in the Zone. Just wanted to share this with all of you. That's all for now. Be back home on the 21st and will probably be seeing many of you at the PSEB Conference/Exhibition.
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