Asia Times: India, Philippines next call-center players


	November 8, 2001	atimes.com

India/Pakistan

India, Philippines next call-center players

NEW DELHI - India and the Philippines will become the major forces in the Asia-Pacific call-center services market, according to a report by global technology research firm Frost and Sullivan.

"A large pool of skilled workers, supportive government initiatives like tax concessions, savings on operational costs and a huge English-speaking population will be the edge in driving these two countries ahead of others in the outsourcing market," said Moaiyad Taher Hoosenally of Frost & Sullivan. However, the report warns that India faces challenges in terms of poor telecom infrastructure and Indian-accented English.

The report also speaks of the rapidly emerging call-center industry in China.

"In China, due to its higher telephone penetration rate and a competitive paging market, the expansion of the call-center market has been rather easy. The growth also coincides with widespread use of interactive voice response [IVR] solutions to replace manual switching boards which have been traditionally used by government agencies and companies," the report said.

China's call centers already dwarf those of its neighbors Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, the report said.

By 2007, the Asia-Pacific call-center market is expected to generate revenue of US$1.6 billion from the current $800 million, Frost and Sullivan said.

(Asia Pulse/PTI)