MALAYSIA THIRD MOST PREFERRED DESTINATION FOR OUTSOURCING SERVICES

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has retained its third position,
after India and China, as the most preferred location for global outsourcing
services in the 2009 A.T. Kearney's Global Services Location Index (GSLI).

The A.T. Kearney's GSLI, established in 2004, analyses and ranks the top 50
countries worldwide as the best destinations for providing outsourcing
activities, including information technology services and support, contact
centres and back-office support.

Each country's score is composed of a weighted combination of relative
scores on 43 measurements, which are grouped into three categories: financial
attractiveness, people skills and availability, and business environment.

Multimedia Development Corp chief executive officer, Badlisham
Ghazali, said Malaysia has always been strategically positioned to offer the
best in attracting multinational companies (MNCs).

"The availability of skilled workers, competitive cost and an ideal business
environment had always been the attractive ingredients for the companies to pick
Malaysia for their shared services and outsourcing (SSO) as well as offshoring
activities," he said at a media briefing on the A.T. Kearney's survey here
Thursday.

He said it was important for the country to produce more knowledge workers
going forward to strengthen the country's position in the industry.

"At present, there are 79,000 knowledge workers in MSC Malaysia, of which
eight percent are non-Malaysians," he said.

Currently, there are 163 operational SSO companies out of 179 which were
awarded the MSC Malaysia status and there are 87 active MNCs in Malaysia, mostly
in the SSO industry, software and e-solutions as well as creative multimedia.

MDeC is a high-powered government-owned corporation set up to facilitate the
development and promotion of MSC Malaysia.

-- BERNAMA