World Bank President James Wolfensohn has said that outsourcing was a natural consequence of the free market and suggested safety nets be put in place to protect those who lose their jobs.

"My belief is that historically, a free market is the most effective market, and certainly in my working lifetime there have been waves of sending jobs to Singapore and some other countries that are now Asian Tigers", Wolfensohn said.

"In today's world, economics would drive jobs unless the conduct of business is stopped. Of course one has to see that there is no child labour and there is fair competition in the labour market," he added.

Admitting that there will be "problems" in areas where jobs have moved elsewhere, Wolfensohn said it was the "responsibility of governments, and, in some cases, corporations" to retrain retrenched employees.