At a time when global recession is casting a pall of gloom across industries worldwide, business outsourcing seems to be one of the very few segments of industry that is shining bright.

And it is not surprising that the two countries that are expected to benefit the most from the meltdown are India and the Philippines, albeit after a round of pain in the early days as the industries battle the turmoil and the related layoffs.

With both countries setting a great deal of importance on the BPO sector in view of the jobs it creates as a cheaper option to big businesses, there is every likelihood that global giants would look more towards these destinations to cut costs.

However, there is no mistaking the pain element as there would be a definite impact on the industry when financial giants call in the liquidators or when companies like the CitiGroup announce largescale layoffs. Without doubt, there would b job losses but for every job lost India and Philippines could gain more than one as others rush in to outsource and save costs.

In the Philippines the industry expects a growth this year of between 35-40 per cent on revenues of around seven billion dollars while India hopes to grow by about 15-19 per cent as per estimates drawn up by Nasscom, though this growth would come at a much higher base of about 40 billion dollars of annual export revenues.

In fact, India and the Philippines are part of the solution and not part of the problem, as the CEO of Business Process Association of Philippines Oscar Sanez said in a published interview recently.

Already there are positive signs from both the KPO and LPO segments with clients from the US and Europe making a beeline for moving some of their process-driven operations to Indian shores. A look at some of the job sites in India shows a sudden spurt in BPO job postings with one of the biggest sites having as many as 250 postings on a single day.

With more than half of the global outsourcing business settled in India, there is no reason for the big offshoring service providers to get overtly worried. At the most, there could be a course correction in terms of revenues which might ultimately translate to lower annual increments for the employees and reduction in overhead expenses for the companies.

As for the Philippines, though there were fears initially of job losses, recent trends indicate that things are not all that bad as it was thought to be. A report quoted Rick Santos, country head of CB Richard Ellis as saying that demand for office space could actually grow this year and that too by as much as 52 per cent.

If there is anything these two countries need to worry about, it is the sudden mushrooming of other destinations like the African continent and countries like Egypt in the Middle East as competitors to their BPO hegemony.