Slashdot Mirror
Africa Enters Global Market For IT Outsourcing
nusratt writes "MarketWatch reports that many organizations 'are moving away from India as the place to outsource, because of the labor churn, and Africa supplies the highest rate of return on investments. New York's parking ticket system is managed from Ghana, Nigeria has an entire ministry for ICT, and Mauritius is building its own CyberCity. Gartner predicts that up to 25 percent of IT jobs today will be moved to emerging markets by 2010'."
Nigeria is like the internet scam capital of the world they lack the legal infrastructure to be a trustworthy place to do business.
Thats not to say they couldnt turn it around...but its going to take a lot of work.
It's not super in depth, but over at cio.com they have interactive maps comparing different parts of the world for outsourcing.
FYI The the nation that produces the most spam is the Good Ole USA. Just because this scam is popular in Nigera dosn't mean that most nigerian's are scam artists. A couple of months ago over 500 scammers were arrested. Of course slashdot decided not to publish the story.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
Oh yes, offshore outsourcing is going to be huge! Oh and by the way, we do have our own offshore outsourcing consullting services!
Not saying they are wrong, but you just gotta wonder if they may have alterior motives....
Well, let's see...
Biotech - most of the drug companies are already moving R&D to India; it's a lot cheaper when you can dump your leftovers in the drain rather than having to dispose of them properly. Test subjects are cheaper, too. GE has moved their next-gen MRI stuff there, too. So much for medi-tech. as well.
Nanotech - Most MEMS fabrication is going to be done in China. Most economists say it doesn't pay to have your R&D for fabs far away from the fabs themselves. Most EDA outsourcing is already offshore (as is a lot of design). What makes you think MEMS work is going to be any different?
Advanced computer technology - Name one that an Indian or Chinese brain can't figure out as well as an American one. Most robotics AI work now is being done in Japan. US funding for same is in the dumper and it is highly unlikely that publically traded companies will see the short term payoff to invest in speculative technologies.
Space tech - Well, see what I said about "advanced computer technology" and double it for this. Plus the government is sloughing off research in this area as fast as they can.
Bottom line, we don't have a premier R&D system anymore. Corporations don't want to fund R labs to fuel the D. Regulated monopolies (which once provided them) are now simply quasi-protected entities that still have to answer to the corporate shareholders. Government R&D continues to be slashed and most of that money goes to universities to train foreigners because Americans know that once they work for X years studying science and technology their jobs will be gone.
High tech doesn't buy the future in a world of open and fast communication - the knowledge diffuses too rapidly. Unless you have some structural barrier to knowledge and/or job migration, it will happen.
My opinion - we saw the collapse of unfettered socialism about twenty years ago. It's about time for the collapse of unfettered capitalism. My best guess says about five years from now...
That is all.