OUTSOURCING IN EGYPT
Egypt is making a pitch to be the next offshore outsourcing hot-spot, claiming that its
foreign language skills and low labor costs put the country in a strong position to compete
with India and Eastern Europe. *€“ Andy McCue
Egypt is well in its way to establishing itself as an important player in the offshore
outsourcing market (Marson, and Blodgett).From a fledgling economy just a decade ago,
Egypt has become an example of economic growth for the developing world (Masr). Egypt
is somewhat a new entrant to this market; however, it has remarkably outgrown itself in
that segment in the past few years. In only a couple of years, Egypts technology and
outsourcing sectors have led its economic charge.Egypt ranks above Eastern European
locations such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland as well as other Middle East
and African locations such as South Africa and Tunisia as an outsourcing destination
(Marson, and Blodgett). Furthermore, Egypt has ever since been compared to and
competing with two famous outsourcing behemoths, India and China. Moreover, Global
information communications technology (ICT) companies such as Cisco, Google, IBM,
Microsoft, Oracle and Orange Business Services are already exploiting Egypts IT talent
pool.(Marson, and Blodgett)
•WHY OUTSOURCE IN EGYPT
We are far ahead of South Africa in offshore outsourcing and this is something that has
changed over the past couple of years.– Adel Danish (Chairman & CEO at Xceed, Egypts
largest call center)
Egypt is well placed to go after the Middle Eastern market. The most important factor in
Egypt that facilitates all the subsequent factors is the Population. The large population
offers multilingual capabilities, a wide range of faculty graduates and a large talent pool.
Its labor costs are lower than in some other low-cost regions, and it has time zone
advantages with Europe, Africa, Asia and North Africa.
Moreover, with a workforce boasting multilingual capabilities, it can appeal to
European-based companies as well. (Marson, and Blodgett) Egypt offers an availability of
language skills. The Arabic language, the mother language, is unique on its own.Of the
25,000 students graduating in Cairo in an average year, 20,000 speak English, around
4,000 speak French, 2,000 German, 1,000 Spanish, and around 1,000 graduates even speak
Lithuanian, according to official sources (Information Age). This wide range of
multilingual students offers as a huge advantage for Egypt s technology and outsourcing
sectors.
With Egypts 80,000-some technical graduates each year, Egypt can claim a large and
