Outsourcing, Where is our share!

[khalid Hassan]

I had some technical issues with Pro-E Intralink this Friday. I called PTC tech support & guess who answered my call, Mr. Rick (Ragu nana...something) from some place in India and it took me a while to explain the issue & understand the solution he was suggesting (even though I consider myself very well versed with desi-accent way of communication). Also the same week our company approved a vendor from India who will supply ground clamps to our company. This is not just our company, its happening all over USA, According to the Global Insight study, US spending for offshore outsourcing of just computer software and services would grow from $10 billion in 2003 to $31 billion in 2008. The total savings from the use of offshore resources will grow from US$6.7 billion to US$20.9 billion, in the same period. Looking at these figures, its pretty clear that no matter what, these numbers are so tempting to corporate America that outsourcing trend will continue......the thing we need to think about is where is our share of the pie. India, China, Malaysia, Taiwan every body is there except us.
Lets have a discussion on how we as a professional engineers can play our role in developing an infrastructure in Pakistan that could help our local industries to compete this rumble.

[Riaz Haq]

I agree with Khalid that Pakistan should actively compete for millions of jobs that US companies will move offshore during the next few years. But we have tough competition from countries that have much higher rates literacy, greater political stability, better security etc. Improving our figures and perception in these areas with some high-profile success stories of companies outsourcing to Pakistan would make a big difference. It's a challenge that we all must step up to deal with. There are companies that have successfully outsourced to Pakistan. We should highlight these companies as part of our message in trying to attract more jobs to Pakistan. Please refer to my recent blog post regarding innovation economy in Pakistan that was reproduced from San Jose Mercury News. http://www.pakalumni.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1119293%3ABlogPost%3...

[Syed Asad Alam]

Although I agree that the political and security situation in pakistan is not good, specially Karachi, but I believe that this situation could be helped somewhat by senior NEDians and other seniors belonging to other universities around pakistan, either owning companies in US or being in important decision making positions there, by campaigning for outsourcing in pakistan.

one of the examples is Digitek Engineering here in Karachi. It is owned by Mr. Tariq Muhammad (CS Batch 86-87) who has more than 10 years experience working in the US. He took the risk and initiative and now Alhumdulillah, not only the company is doing well, it has helped us karachites and NEDians in getting very good experience in Digital Design, a field which still is in its infancy here. further initiatives by other people would greatly help pakistan coming to the fore-front of technology.