Asia-Pacific Business Process Outsourcingmarket to grow 16 per cent

Singapore - The Asia-Pacific's Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) market is expected to be worth 8.3 billion US dollars by the end of this year compared to 7 billion a year earlier, research agency IDC said on Monday.

The market is forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of 16 per cent until 2011 to reach 14.8 billion US dollars, IDC added.

'We can essentially view the BPO market in the region as either

matured or developing, and within that, English-speaking or non English speaking, each with its unique needs and characteristics,' The Business Times quoted Conrad Chang, IDC Asia-Pacific research manager as saying.

BPO end-users are demanding solutions that address their particular needs, Chang said. 'Cookie-cutter approahes will not work in addressing region-specific issues.'

The research agency defines BPO as distinct from normal processing services. Outsourcing services such as checks, credit cards and bill processing are not considered to be BPO activities.

IDC regards BPO as more strategic in nature and involving transformational activities that align a company's outsourcing engagements to corporate objectives.

Challenges facing Singapore are its small domestic market and pool of available talent compared with such countries as India, China and the Philippines.

Increasing competition is coming from Malaysia, Chang told the newspaper.