MSC Malaysia & Outsourcing Malaysia Collaborate to Boost Malaysia's Outsourcing Industry

New partners to advance nation’s increasingly competitive ICT outsourcing industry

KUALA LUMPUR, Monday, 1 October 2007 – Outsourcing Malaysia (OM), a chapter of  Association of the Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia (PIKOM), and MSC Malaysia today announced a new partnership set to undertake key initiatives and boost the nation’s ICT outsourcing industry.

The partnership signals a change in tempo for the fast growing industry. It seeks to increase Malaysia’s number of globally competent outsourcing companies, create a sustainable pool of globally recognised professionals, create thousands of new jobs and increase revenues from ICT service exports. 

In today’s signing ceremony, PIKOM chairman David Wong Nan Fay, represented OM as the chapter’s chairman, exchanged documents with the driver and catalyst of MSC Malaysia, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) chief executive officer Dato’ Badlisham Ghazali to formalise this new partnership.

Higher Gear

The partnership’s principal aim, explained Wong, shifts the local ICT outsourcing industry into a higher gear. “This partnership is very promising and draws its strength from the combined efforts and vast experience fromOM and MDeC,” said Wong. For example, the new partners have set their sight on several key initiatives.

These initiatives will accelerate the evolution of the local ICT shared services and outsourcing (SSO) industry to stand on par with global standards. “We have achieved globally recognised success in the past two years. Our SSO industry has proven itself to be resilient and determined, having weathered market turbulence,” remarked Badlisham. “The SSO industry is growing economically and this partnership will help us march ahead of the crowd and progressively forward.”

The global worldwide SSO market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15 per cent over the next few years, reaching USD 1.43 trillion by 2009 as compared to USD 930 billion in 2006. “The outsourcing need is growing and we intend to fully leverage on our achievements to meet this need,” he said adding ICT services like SSO contributed RM2.8 billion to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product of RM495.6 billion. 

“Our initiatives will help ensure Malaysia surges ahead to become a globally preferred ICT outsourcing destination,” he said alluding to AT Kearney Inc’s 2007 Global Service Location Index which ranked Malaysia as the world’s third most ideal outsourcing destination and Frost & Sullivan Inc’s 2007 Global Shared Services and Outsourcing Hub which placed Malaysia as one of the top five most preferred locations in the world for SSO.

Key Initiatives

These strategic initiatives, revealed Wong, include joint Government-industry trade missions, conferences, round-tables, seminars and road shows to specifically engage targeted audiences, namely in five sectors; banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector, technology/ICT, healthcare, transportation and logistics and energy. 

“We will be leading three of such missions within the next three months,” he said. These missions are to promote the local outsourcing industry at Sourcing Leadership 2007, OutsourceWorld-2007 and Infocom2007.  In addition, OM will also host the first Malaysian Outsourcing Conference next year in partnership with MDeC.

We also encourage all OM members to gear themselves to be a MSC Malaysia status. In particular, this initiative will help smaller-sized local outsourcing providers to work their way and qualify to become MSC Malaysia status.
These missions will help build business relationships across the SSO industry. It also offers an opportunity to market and brand Malaysia’s core SSO competencies and thought leadership among targeted markets.

A key initiative involves job creation and human capital development. “The growth of this industry will create thousands of technical and managerial jobs within the country. This is important to grow the number of skilled ICT workforce for the industry,” said Wong. 

The local software and services sector is expected to employ as many as 200,000 by 2010, from 132,000 in 2005. “We want to develop talent and create a sustainable talent pool to fuel this industry. As such, we will integrate talent from Institutions of Higher Learning and working professionals from the industry in joint work-projects. These projects will be held under the auspices of MDeC’s Knowledge Workers Development Institute,” said Badlisham.

The partners will also jointly host the Malaysia Chapter of International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, the first of such chapter formed inSouth-East Asia. IAOP is a New York based worldwide association of corporations and professionals working together in the field of outsourcing and global sourcing. 

Another initiative involves providing substantive information about the industry itself. It will undertake a focused custom research, an ongoing exercise that gathers, evaluates and analyses both data and information related to the industry. “We firmly believe that such information is vital to sustain the attractiveness of Malaysia within the outsourcing eco-sphere.

About PIKOM

PIKOM, the Association of Computer and Multimedia Industry of Malaysia, is the association representing Malaysia’s ICT industry. PIKOM currently has a membership of over 716 member companies that provides an entire spectrum of ICT products and services which contributes 80 per cent of Malaysia’s total ICT industry.


About Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC)

Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) is a unique high powered government-owned corporation, established to facilitate the development and promotion of MSC Malaysia, the premier Malaysian ICT initiative. MDeC is tasked to advise the Malaysian Government on ICT legislation and policies, develop MSC Malaysia as a key growth driver of the economy and set breakthrough standards for ICT and multimedia operations. MDeC also promotes MSC Malaysia locally and globally, as well as supports companies which are located within the MSC Malaysia designated areas. MDeC works closely with various parties and government agencies to ensure that MSC Malaysia offers a conducive enabling environment for companies to harness the full potential of ICT and multimedia technologies. 


About MSC Malaysia

MSC Malaysia is a national initiative spearheaded by the Malaysian Government to promote both the national ICT industry and provide a test-bed for the global ICT industry.  MSC Malaysia provides a conducive enabling environment designed to facilitate companies to harness the full potential of ICT and multimedia technologies.  With its ideal business environment coupled with the availability of talent resources, the MSC Malaysia has attracted participation from major global ICT companies to develop and host their leading-edge technologies in the designated MSC Malaysia Cybercities. MSC Malaysia also provides the ideal growth environment for Malaysian ICT SMEs to transform themselves into world-class companies. Come explore the unlimited opportunities of the ICT world by locating in MSC Malaysia and be part of our global network of businesses and connected communities.


About Outsourcing Malaysia

The prime objective of this organization is to enhance global visibility of Malaysian service provider capabilities to the global buyers, and to promote the outsourcing industry to another level. OM shall focus on enabling both buyers and providers of services to work together on addressing service needs, within the aegis of global best-practices and competencies.