Australia number one in Asia Pacific for offshoring

The Bric countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) dominate a list ranking the top 30 global offshoring locations, but Australia has come in on top as the preferred Asia-Pacific location.

Analyst group Gartner assessed 30 countries for their suitability for offshoring to help sourcing managers who are "daunted" by the task of choosing the right location.

The Bric countries are well represented but India is singled out as setting the pace around offshore services.

Despite the dominance of the Bric countries, Australia was awarded top spot for offshoring in the Asia-Pacific in Gartner's region-by-region list.

Ian Marriott, research vice president at Gartner, said companies have different criteria when considering their offshoring options and Gartner used 10 criteria to judge each country: cost; cultural compatibility; data and intellectual-property security and privacy; educational system; government support; global and legal maturity; infrastructure; labour pool; language; and political and economic environment.

China is India's closest rival in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of scale, but is held back by language issues.

In the Americas, Canada was named the top country in seven of the 10 categories, including language, although Latin American countries are singled out as being viable options due to the prevalence of Spanish.

In terms of the criterion of political and economic environment, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam all fared poorly.

Marriott said another 35 countries were also considered and have demonstrated initial activities aimed at establishing themselves as viable offshoring locations.

Next year, Gartner forecasts global spending on offshore services will increase by 60 percent in Europe and 40 percent in the US.