Sri Lanka beaten by China in Asian outsourcing race: IBM report

Dec 07, 2010 (LBO) - Sri Lanka and China are emerging as key destinations for services investments, while Phillipines has overtaken India as the top ranked outsourcing centre, a report by IBM, a global information technology firm has said. In IBM's Global Location Trends report for 2010 Philippines claimed top place displacing India for the first time in terms of estimated workers, and China overtook Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka retained its position at 12 while China moved to 5, from 13 a year earlier.

"China is continuing its ascent as a services destination, and confirms it should not be considered anymore merely the world’s factory," the report said.

"Sri Lanka is another Asian country that has succeeded in positioning itself as an alternative to India."

Several Sri Lankan firms are engaging in the high-end of the market in the so-called 'knowledge processing outsourcing' of KPO sector.

Sri Lanka has been competing for outsourcing business for several years under the shadow of a 30-year war which increased risk. In 2009 a war ended and the country is looking forward to increasing services investments in particular.

Treasury secretary P B