Egypt named outsourcing destination of the year
Egypt was awarded the prestigious title of Outsourcing Destination of the Year at the National Outsourcing Association’s 2008 Awards, beating rivals Philippines and Romania to the accolade.
The CEO of Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency, (ITIDA) Dr. Hazem Abdelazim, received the award on behalf of his government during a glamorous ceremony at the Park Plaza Riverbank.
More than 350 high-level executives and outsourcing professionals attended the event, hosted by comedian presenter Dominic Holland.
“This award recognizes the vast progress Egypt has made in the outsourcing market,” said Abdelazim. “Egypt is slowly but surely putting its mark on the map of favoured global services locations. Its young population, a large multi-lingual workforce, a solid infrastructure and a competitive cost structure is fortified by unequivocal government support, making Egypt a compelling destination for outsourcing services.”
According to the judges, Egypt won the award because of its language skills, young population and growing list of global sourcing investments. It has soared in the popularity stakes in the last few years as an offshore destination for Europe.
Martyn Hart, chairman of the NOA, commented: “At the NOA we strive to raise awareness of best practice in the outsourcing industry – the awards are core to this strategy. Our winners and the runners-up have ably demonstrated excellence in outsourcing and have highlighted the importance of best practice and standards being met in the industry.
These achievements make an excellent contribution to the Body of Outsourcing Knowledge (the BOOK) that the NOA holds on behalf of the industry.”
The awards, which are in their fifth year, aim to reward organisations for success in outsourcing projects, as well as raising awareness of the importance of best practice in outsourcing. The awards acknowledge achievements in IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing, as well as sector-specific achievements in telecommunications, finance and utilities.
Recently, Egypt was praised as “by far the Middle Eastern country currently best positioned to take advantage of the boom in outsourcing” in a report by the Yankee Group[1]. Cairo was also awarded seventh position in a study prepared by Global Services-Tholons on the top 50 emerging outsourcing cities in 2008[2]. A.T. Kearney, the leading consultancy firm, also placed the country 13th in its 2007 Global Services Location Index[3].
The growing list of multinationals investing in Egypt, including Vodafone, Wipro, Satyam, Teleperformance, IBM, Microsoft, SQS and Valeo, is another testament to the country’s unwavering efforts to establish itself as a modern business location.
Pictured above from left to right:
Dominic Holland, comedian and the evening’s host, Ms. Zeinab Zaki, Executive Vice President ITIDA, Dr. Hazem Abdelazim, CEO ITIDA, Sanjiv Gossain, Vice President & UK Managing Director Cognizant, who presented the award and Mr. Yasser El Kadi, Board Member ITIDA.
[1] Yankee Group Research Inc., Can Middle Eastern Countries Fulfill the Eastern Promise, July 2008
[2] Top 50 Emerging Outsourcing Cities, A Global Services-Tholons Study, October 2008
[3] A.T. Kearney, Global Services Location Index 2007
Tweet29 Oct 2008
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Comments on: Egypt named outsourcing destination of the year
with the overwhelming number of call centers here, and the competitiveness that we create, Philippines should have won the award…
Posted by jhef — 29 Oct 2008 @ 5:31 pm
The NOA is split about 80% ITO and 20% BPO (including call-centre). Egypt doesn’t compete in English-speaking call centre work against India, The Philippines, South Africa etc. They would certainly like to and because they have so much money to promote themselves, they have been spending lots of money on marketing themselves as a call centre destination. However, any company that does due dilligence will discover that Egypt really isn’t on the English-speaking map. I believe the award for Egypt had little if anything to do with English-speaking BPO work.
Posted by Terry Taylor — 2 Nov 2008 @ 12:30 am
[...] African nations (behind Angola). In 2008 the U.S.-based National Outsourcing Association named Egypt its “Outsourcing Destination of the [...]
Posted by Mubarek’s Foreign Corporate Backers | Western Outlaw — 24 Mar 2011 @ 3:01 pm
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