Brisbane, Australia

Brisbane is the third largest city in Australia and the capital of Queensland. It is a popular business and tourist center. The city has a population of 1,857, 594 with a literacy rate of 52.6% (persons over the age of 15 with a qualification). The main languages spoken are English, Chinese and Italian. The major industries in Brisbane include tourism, oil refining, mining, financial services, construction and health.

Key drivers for Brisbane to emerge as a favorable IT-BPO destination:

• The city has a vast talent pool with a higher proportion of graduates than the national average. It attracted over 40,000 international graduates in 2006.


• The city is home to renowned universities known for their quality of education and research and development.


• Brisbane is recognized for it engineering talent and has a higher number of ICT graduates per capita than any other Australian state.


• More than 16% of the households speak a second language other than English thus providing a multi-lingual workforce.


• The Queensland government promotes the growth of the ICT sector through its “Smart ICT Strategy” that extends support to the ICT industry for raising capital, export enhancement, research and development and business development.
• Brisbane offers cost adventages over other cities like Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, with an average of about 15% lower employee cost.

Other information:

• Brisbane is gaining recognition as a hub for gaming development in Australia.


• The ICT revenue of Brisbane was $23.6 billion in 2007. There are close to 5600 companies employing about 77,300 people.


• The prominent IT-BPO services sourced from Brisbane include software development, customer care, engineering services, game development and e-security services.


• The city also caters to the domestic software development requirements especially of the mining industry.

Changsha, China

Changsha is the capital of Hunan province of China and a key transport hub with a diverse economic and industrial base. The city has a population of 6,530,000 with a literacy rate of 83%. The main languages spoken are Chinese and English. Major industries in Changsha include engineering, automobile, Chinese traditional and biological medicine.

Key drivers for Changsha to emerge as a favorable IT-BPO destination:

• Changsha is one of the 13 cities identified by the Chinese government as hubs for services outsourcing in China.


• Companies located in Changsha’s ‘Hi-Tech’ zone benefit from the various incentives and grants offered by the Hunan provincial government.


• Changsha produces nearly half of China’s animations and cartoons and is poised to become a hub for outsourced animation services.


• The city is a key higher education and research base in Central China for engineering, computer software, IT and electronics.


• Changsha has a well established training infrastructure with over 30 training institutions in the city.


• Changsha offers a comparative cost advantage over other Chinese cities. Office rentals in Changsha are a fourth of rentals in cities like Shanghai.

Other information:

• Several companies like Microsoft and IBM have entered Changsha by forming partnerships with local firms. Perot Systems has a BPO services center in the city.


• The city is home to about 700 outsourcing enterprises. Services offered out of Changsha include R&D, IT and animation


• There also seems to be traction in the healthcare medical coding and billing outsourcing segment with local companies trying to acquire business from the US and European markets.


• The Changsha government helps companies target offshore outsourcing markets like US, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea as well as solicit domestic business in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta areas.


• Junior software engineers in the city can be hired for $170 to $250 a month with is a third of the rates in tier I cities like Shanghai.


• Companies setting up operations in the designated outsourcing zones can enjoy a two-year tax waiver. They can get a subsidy of about $700 per employee for training and hiring.

Hangzhou, China

Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang Province in China. It is an important hub in South Central China know nationally for its historical and cultural traditions. It has a population of 6,700,000 with a literacy rate of 91.9%. The main languages spoken are Chinese and English. Major industries include textile, electronics, telecommunications, high-tech, chemicals and medicine. Situated on the southern wing of the Yangtze River delta, Hangzhou is 90 minutes from Shanghai by rail.

Key drivers for Hangzhou to emerge as a favorable IT-BPO destination:

• Hangzhou is among the 12 cities identified by the Chinese government as hubs for service outsourcing in China.


• About 18,000 students graduate annually in IT-related courses from educational institutes in Hangzhou.


• Financial services contribute about 43% of Hangzhou’s offshore service contract valuein the first 3 quarters of 2008.


• Hangzhou is an established industrial base and had foreign trade amounting to $43.4 billion in 2007.


• The administration of Hangzhou has invested in steady infrastructure improvements over the last few years.


• Hangzhou provides a lower cost alternative with affordable talent, despite being located very close to Shanghai.

Other information:

• The electronics and IT industry has been growing in Hangzhou since the 1990s.


• Hangzhou’s services outsourcing industry has attracted MNCs to set up R&D centers in the city.


• TCS and Infosys are some of the It companies with offices in Hangzhou.


• The combined IT-BPO exports of the city were estimated at $261 million in 2006.


• Over 10,000 trained IT-BPO professionals pass out every year from the 36 higher educational schools in Hangzhou.


• Proficiency in English language among students is currently low. However Hangzhou has several English training institutes for students and professionals.

Ahmedabad, India

Ahmedabad is the largest city in Gujarat state located 30 kms from Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat. It is the cultural and commercial capital of Gujarat. Situated in Western India, it can be reached by an hours flight from Mumbai. Ahmedabad has a population of 5,808,379 with a literacy rate of 80%. Languages spoken include Gujarati, Hindi and English. Major industries include, gems and jewelry, engineering, textiles, chemicals, petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals.

Key drivers for Ahmedabad to emerge as a favorable IT-BPO destination:

• The city has a large pool of qualified HR, especially with F&A related background. Ahmedabad also produces a large number of Chartered Accountants.


• Some of India’s finest educational institutes are situated in and around Ahmedabad.


• The city offers a cost advantage in terms of approximately 30 percent lower compensation levels and rentals compared with premier IT BPO destinations like Mumbai and Bangalore.


• The government is setting up an International tech Finance City dedicated to offering services to the financial sector.

Other information:

• Gujarat started witnessing an upswing in the IT-BPO sector in the late 1990s. the market is dominated by mid to small sized third party companies and is currently not home to any large sized captive BPO.


• Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara are the major hubs that account for the states 98% IT-BPO exports.


• The city also caters to the domestic Indian market for voice process especially for the telecom segment.


• There are over 350 outsourcing companies operating in Ahmedabad.


• The key IT-BPO services sourced from Ahmedabad include IT services, customer care and F&A.


• MphasiS, Motif, Azure and Aegis are some of the BPO companies operating in Ahmedabad.

Jaipur, India

Jaipur is the state capital of Rajasthan and the first planned city of its time in India. It is known as the ‘Pink City’ do to the color of its prominent buildings and is among the most popular domestic and international tourist destinations in India. The population of Jaipur is 2,796,000 with a literacy rate of 71%. Key languages spoken in the city include Marwari, Hindi and English. Major industries of Jaipur are gems and jewelry, tourism, granite tiles, handloom, brass and marble works, textile, apparel and woolen carpets.

Key drivers for Jaipur to emerge as a favorable IT-BPO destination:

• Jaipur has a large pool of qualified HR especially engineering graduates, with 64 engineering colleges located in and around the city.


• Due to its proximity to the NCR, many companies are considering Jaipur as a support location to create a hub-and-spoke model.


• The new Mahindra World City SEZ is expected to add about 3 million sq mts of office space for the IT-BPO industry.


• Jaipur offers a significant cost advantage over the NCR as well as other tier I and II cities in India.


• Jaipur was ranked third in the World Bank’s ‘Doing business in South Asia 2007’ report, comparing 12 major Indian cities on a composite parameter for ease of doing business.


• Jaipur’s status as one of the top tourist destinations in India gives it added visibility on the national and international map.

Other information:

• Companies such as Genpact, Infosys BPO, Deutsche Bank and Tryst Technologies have BPO and back office operations in the city.


• Companies in Jaipur are also servicing the growing domestic BPO market in India.


• The major IT-BPO services sourced from Jaipur include IT services, especially software development, engineering services, healthcare BPO services such as medical transcription and knowledge services.

Nagpur, India

Nagpur is a major commercial, industrial and transportation hub in Maharashtra state and marks the geographical center of India. It is known as the ‘orange city’ due to the large number of Mandarin oranges grown here. Nagpur has a population of 2,420,000 with a literacy rate of 74%. The key languages spoken include Marathi, Hindi and English. Textile, steel, coal mining, logistics and transportation are the major industries of the City.

Key drivers for Nagpur to emerge as a favorable IT-BPO destination:

• Nagpur is witnessing significant infrastructural development due to the ‘Multi-nodal international cargo hub and airport at Nagpur’ (MIHAN) project.


• The MIHAN area is to have among other SEZs, a dedicated IT park spread over 494 hectares with the required infrastructure for IT-BPO companies.


• Boeing has set up a $185 million maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) center in Nagpur.


• Nagpur is an educational hub in central India with its many medical and engineering institutes.


• The city offers significant advantage in terms of lower cost compared to tier I and II cities.

Other information:

• Nagpur has been a relatively late entrant into the IT-BPO scene.


• Leading IT companies are now expressing an interest in the city. Companies like GE, Microsoft, Patni and L&T Infotech have purchased land for IT parks within the SEZs around the MIHAN area.


• The combines IT-BPO exports from the city are estimated at $25.9 million in 2007-08.


• The prominent IT-BPO services sourced from Nagpur include IT services, software engineering services and healthcare BPO services.

Penang, Malaysia

Also referred as the ‘pearl of the orient’, Penang lies off the northwestern cost of Peninsular Malaysia. It is a bustling port, a heritage city and an industrial hub. It has a population of 1,469,00 with a literacy rate of 88%. Key languages spoken include English, Bahasa Melayu Chinese, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam. Penang’s major industries include, manufacturing, logistics, construction, tourism and retail. Penang is 50 miniute flight away from Kuala Lumpur.

Key drivers for Penang to emerge as a favorable IT-BPO destination:

• The government has a strong focus on promoting the IT-BPO industry in Penang through initiatives such as ‘Invest Penang’ and creating the Software consortium of Penang (SCoPe).


• There is a talent pool of skilled English speaking developers of many nationalities in Penang, making it suited for multi-lingual service delivery.


• Although the potential to scale is limited, the talent-pool is suited to offer higher-end services, especially in areas such as financial services, logistics, energy and pharmaceutical.


• Penang is also developing as a hub of Islamic banking services, especially by banks in the Middle East.


• Significant investments are planned to upgrade the infrastructure of the city.


• Penang has a string engineering and manufacturing base, which can be leveraged to offer services in these sectors.

Other information:

• The combined IT-BPO exports from the city are estimated to be at $564 million in 2007.


• Penang was the first state in Malaysia to be officially granted the status of cyber city in January 2003.


• There are 20,500 professionals employed in the IT-BPO sector in Penang.


• Companies are mainly engaged in enterprise application services. However, other services such as internet surveillance, CRM, animation and e-solutions, and pharmaceutical services are also provided from the city.

Davao City, Philippines

Davao City is considered as the financial center of the Mindanao Island in the Philippines. It is also a popular tourist destination. In 2002, Davao City was declared an IT hub given its potential to attract ICT companies. Its population is 1,147,116 and a literacy rate of 95%. The key languages spoken include Cebuano, Filipino and English. Tourism, food processing, light manufacturing and wood processing are the major industries. Davao City can be reach in about 90 minutes by air from Manila.

Key drivers for Davao City to emerge as a favorable IT-BPO destination:

• Davao City is the educational hub for Davao province and has a large number of educational institutions.


• Some companies are setting up training centers in the city, which are also being utilized to train employees from the companies’ other operating centers in the Philippines.


• The talent pool has good English skills which coupled with cultural similarities to the US are suitable to provide voice based services to the US.


• Companies looking at a hub-and-spoke model in the Philippines are setting up supporting centers to their operations in Manila or Cebu City, in Davao City.


• The city offers an advantage by way of lower cost of living, cheaper wage rates and good infrastructure, compared with larger cities in the Philippines.

Other information:

• Davao City has come up as an attractive outsourcing destination in the last 2-3 years.


• Some of the companies are working with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) in Davao city for training, which includes a component on call center training for their employees.


• BPO exports from the city in 2007-08 were approximately $60 million.


• The major IT-BPO services sourced from the city include call-centers, medical transcription, web and graphic design and engineering services.


• Investors in IT and BPO operations are granted tax holidays on local fees and charges and basic real property tax

Iloilo City, Philippines

Iloilo City is the capital of Iloilo province located in the western Visayas region. It is the ninth most populous city in the Philippines. It was historically an important agricultural center in the country. It is a 45 minute flight away from Manila. The population of Iloilo City is 418,710 with a literacy rate of 94%. Languages spoken include Hiligaynon, Tagalog, English and Chinese. Major industries are telecommunications, agro-fisheries, small to medium scale light industries.

Key drivers for Iloilo City to emerge as a favorable IT-BPO destination:

• Iloilo City has been identified by the Philippines government as one of the ‘next wave’ cities for the ICT industry.


• The city is suited for creating supporting operations for companies who wish to set up a hub-and-spoke model in the Philippines, by providing a lower cost alternative to Manila and Cebu City.


• A large talent pool is available owing to the number of educational institutes in the city.


• The city is predominantly suited for voice-based operations due to the strong English language skills.

Other information:

• The Iloilo Federation for IT, and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) represent the IT-BPO industry in the city.


• BPO export in 2007-08 for the city stood at $25 million.


• Teletech, Callbox, ePLDT are some of the major call-centers in the city.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam’s largest city and a major port and economic center. It is also a popular tourist attraction in Vietnam. It has a population of 5,244,700 with a literacy rate of 99%.Major languages spoken include Vietnamese, Chinese, English and French. Garments, chemicals, food processing and electronics are some of the major industries in Ho Chi Minh City.

Key drivers for Ho Chi Minh City to emerge as a favorable IT-BPO destination:

• The government of Ho Chi Minh City has approved a plan to develop the city into an IT hub by 2010.


• Proactive measure are being taken to improve the city’s infrastructure, including telecom, power and transport.


• The largest software park in Vietnam, the Thu Thiem Software Park, is scheduled to come up by 2012 in Ho Chi Minh City.


• Ho Chi Minh City has a young population with 65% of people under 35 years of age.


• The city has a large talent pool with 41,600 college and vocational school students passing out every year.


• Salaries and cost of living are lower than capital Hanoi.

Other information:

• The IT industry in Ho Chi Minh City dates back to the last decade with TMA Solutions being one of the earliest companies.


• Over 6000 people are employed in the IT-BPO industry in the city.


• The key services provided are software services and BPO services.