Kingdom 9th best outsourcing destination

By Jonah Shepp

AMMAN – Jordan has ranked 9th among the top 50 global outsourcing destinations in the 2009 A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index.

The report, titled, “The Shifting Geography of Offshoring”, called Jordan a “top performer”, noting that “it has solid capabilities in IT and is home to numerous successful outsourcing companies that compete internationally”.

A.T. Kearney also highlighted that the Kingdom has “one of the region’s most favourable business environments”, adding that the falling value of the US dollar has boosted Jordan’s competitiveness as the dinar is pegged to the dollar.

According to the report, the ratings were reached by evaluating each country against 43 measurements across three major categories: financial attractiveness, people skills and availability, and business environment.

The report also pointed out that the Middle East and North Africa region is emerging as a major outsourcing destination, noting that: “Home to large, well-educated populations, with low costs and proximity to Europe, the area has the potential to redraw the offshoring map.”

In 2004, only two Middle Eastern countries – Turkey and Israel – were included in the report, which now also includes Egypt (ranked 6th), Tunisia (17th), the UAE (29th) and Morocco (30th).

Minister of Information and Communications Technology Bassem Roussan said the A.T. Kearney report “is a testament to the considerable progress Jordan has made over the last few years” in becoming an investment destination, according to a statement from the USAID Jordan Economic Development Programme (SABEQ).

In the statement, Roussan emphasised that the government “will continue to focus on enabling the investment and regulatory environment, as well as building HR capacity as part of an effective partnership with the private sector”.

The statement also quoted Laith Al Qasem, SABEQ’s chief of party, as expressing the programme’s support for the Kingdom’s efforts to develop the outsourcing sector, saying: “Outsourcing can provide a large number of good-paying, high-value jobs for Jordanians in this particular sector of the knowledge economy.”

Also, a separate study compiled by Global Services Media and strategic advisory firm Tholons noted that Amman is poised to become a major hub for outsourcing within the next few years.

The “Top 50 Global Outsourcing Cities” report, sponsored in part by the Information Technology Association of Jordan, named the capital among its “Top 10 Aspirants”.

The list of aspirants includes emerging cities that did not make this year’s list, but have the potential to rank among the top 50 in coming years due to “their interest and recent efforts to develop outsourcing industry”, according to the Global Services-Tholons report.

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