MALAYSIA`S OUTSOURCING SECTOR REVENUE TO GROW BY 20-25 PCT THIS YEAR

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 (Bernama) -- Revenue from the Malaysian outsourcing
industry is likely to increase by 20-25 per cent this year from about US$1.1
billion (US$1=RM3.42) last year.

Chairman of Outsourcing Malaysia, David Wong Nan Fay, said the revenue would
include contributions from information technology processing and the business
process outsourcing (BPO) industries.

"The main contributors will be from retail, healthcare, financial and
insurance, oil and gas, supply chain services and engineering sectors," he told
a media briefing after the release of a research report by the Association of
the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (Pikom), Outsourcing Malaysia
and IDC Malaysia here Thursday.

Wong said most of the services providers, who relied heavily on government
incentives, had yet to achieve international competitiveness.

The research report, "Strategic planning & tactical road maps for Malaysian
organisations to become leading global outsourcing providers" revealed that
Malaysian outsourcing sector still lagged behind in several sectors.

"For instance, in the BPO segment, we are still on the mild side as we have
just created a foothold in outsourcing such as human resources and customer
care," it said.

It said the Philippines was already ahead of us with multiple outsourcing.

-- BERNAMA