A number of multinational companies have already set up regional outsourcing centers in Malaysia, including Shell, HSBC, DHL Worldwide Express, Prudential, IBM, and BMW. However, Malaysia faces stiff competition from other countries in the Asia-Pacific region also competing for offshore business. Many of these countries, such as Vietnam or China, have cheaper or larger workforces than Malaysia.
According to MDC senior vice president Narayanan Kanan, the Malaysian difference is the availability of a multilingual, highly skilled knowledge-driven workforce. These are skills which are particularly useful for service-oriented outsourcing businesses such as front-end call centers and customer relationship management, services already being offered from countries such as India and Phillipines.
However, Narayanan suggested that Malaysia could work with its regional neighbors to build a complete offshore service. Combined with the expertise offered by other countries in this region, Malaysia together with the other Asia-Pacific nations are able to provide what no other geographic location can offer – a total end-to-end outsource service solution that can cater to the needs of any global multinational company, he said.
Source: Computerwire
