Malaysia’s strong talent pool and advantages have placed it among the top three Shared Services Outsourcing (SSO) destinations in the world.

Quoting this from a study by global management consulting firm AT Kearney, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said: “Thanks to Malaysia’s multi-cultural environment, the ranking enables the
country to offer multiple language skills and a high-value workforce capable of interacting as well as meeting the needs of customers across the globe.”

He said there were almost 140 foreign and 60 local companies in the country now performing various SSO activities, ranging from IT and business process outsourcing to knowledge process outsourcing.

Najib said the sectors covered by the companies included energy, chemical and resources.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the opening of the Acre Hewlett-Packard (HP) Global Centre here yesterday.

Built on a 25ha site, the centre will host multiple core functions such as global applications development and support, global finance support and enterprise contacts.

It also has a state-of-the-art next-generation data centre.

Najib said information and communications technology (ICT) was a key enabler in the country’s ambition to achieve a high-income developed nation status by 2020.

“It is no surprise that 85 of the 131 identified entry point projects under the Economic Transform­ation Programme are driven or enabled by ICT.

“It is our belief that to achieve these lofty goals we must be bold enough to break convention and, ultimately, strive towards creating an innovative digital divide that stimulates new technologies, outlets and opportunities.”

Touching on the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) designed to leapfrog the country into the information and knowledge age, the Prime Minister said MSC Malaysia would complete its second phase this year.

“I am happy to report that the results are more than satisfactory,” he said, adding that in 14 years, 2,500 MSC-status companies had been created with a combined contribution of more than RM35bil towards the country’s gross domestic product.

Source:http://www.sourcingfocus.com/index.php/site/newsitem/2777/

Revenue from the Malaysian outsourcing industry is likely to increase by 20 to 25 per cent this year from about $1.1 billion last year, according to the Chairman of Outsourcing Malaysia.

David Wong Nan Fay said here yesterday that the revenue would include contributions from information technology processing and the business process outsourcing (BPO) businesses.

“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.

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

The research report, entitled “Strategic planning & tactical road maps for Malaysian organizations to become leading global outsourcing providers”, revealed that Malaysia’s 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 for human resources and customer care,” it said, adding that the Philippines was already ahead of Malaysia with multiple outsourcing.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/malaysia\s-outsourcing-industry-to-grow-20-25-in-2010/85036/on