The 2012 International Outsourcing Summit (IOS) is being held this week in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines. I won’t be at the summit this year, but colleagues of mine will be.
This summit is a truly international event, with attendees from all of the world’s regions, drawing attention to the Philippines and its US$11 billion business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. BPO directly accounts for about 5% of the country’s economy, with local leaders driving to more than double its size by 2016.
Accenture, Infosys, CapGemini, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cognizant, TSC, and CSC are among the best-known global companies with a major presence in the Philippine BPO industry, joined by numerous strong local companies such as Pointwest Technologies.
The country also has an emerging cloud-computing industry that is still a secret to much of the world. Telcos such as Globe Technologies, datacenters providers such as Arcus IT, investors such as Alfredo Ayala and Dado Banatao, and cloud-software developers such as MorphLabs all figure into the mix, along with an exuberant app culture. Much of this industry will also be represented at IOS this year.
This summit and its location remind me that there’s life beyond the G8 and even G20 economies, beyond the usual Asian stops, and beyond the BRICs.
In fact, the research we’ve been conducting over the past 18 months was inspired by what I saw in the economies and tech cultures during my three-year stay in Southeast Asia, based in Manila. Then, I was able to speak with many interesting people, develop some story ideas, and gain key advisors from several countries from contacts I made at last year’s IOS. The event transcends its ostensible, specific focus of BPO in the Philippines.
So as this year’s summit convenes, here’s a quick review of some of the leaders and emerging nations in our latest research at the Tau Institute. As I’ve written before, our analysis is unique and relative, taking into account local resources and resulting in rankings that show what countries are doing the most with what they have.
World – Global Leaders
1. South Korea
2. Estonia
3. New Zealand
4. Netherlands
5. Finland
Asia – Regional Leaders
1. South Korea
2. Vietnam
3. Taiwan
4. Hong Kong
5. Japan
Asia – Emerging Stars
1. Mongolia
2. Philippines
3. Pakistan
4. India
5. Laos
World – Emerging Stars
1. Eastern Africa (Kenya/Uganda/Tanzania/Ethiopia)
2. Ukraine, Bulgaria, & Romania
3. Nigeria
4. Morocco
5. Jordan
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