Already 18-20 Indian BPO trainers are working in two newly-established call centres in Pakistan. People have been hired from call centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore to help in training, migration and integration, says Rakesh Gupta of Astra Netcom India, a customer relationship management company.

The Pakistan government is going all out to attract investment in the ITeS sector. At present there are 123 international and domestic call centres, with 30 more in the pipeline. The government has announced a 15-year tax holiday for setting up call centres besides other incentives for the IT/ITeS industry, according to Pakistan Software Exports Board.

PSEB, a government body set up to promote outsourcing, forecasts that the BPO business will grow by at least 45 per cent annually in coming years.

"India is a very matured market compared to Pakistan where the call centre industry is at a very nascent stage. The euphoria, which India witnessed in the year 2000 can be seen there now," says Gupta, chairman of the IT enabled services committee, Electronic and Computer Software Export Promotion Council.

"At present we are sending middle and senior management people in training, operations, HR and IT helpdesk  to Pakistan, says Gupta, noting they have tied up with two Pakistan-based companies by putting a build operate transfer team in place there.

"There is lot of scope in Pakistan. Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad are being projected as BPO destinations. And India can offer a lot to them in the way of consultancy services. We have spare capacity of such services, which can now be utilised there," he says.

The pay packages for the Indians too are lucrative � the middle management is being offered a salary of Rs 10 lakh per annum with an apartment and car thrown in as perks.

"Visa is a major issue for Indians, but not impossible to get. These assignments are still of short duration as our people are going on business visa, which means travelling to and fro every now and then."

"Getting a work permit in Pakistan again is hard for Indians, but not impossible," he says.

In the BPO industry, although Pakistan has not attracted services such as medical and legal transcription, data capture and forms processing, there has been a major boom in the outsourcing of voice-based call centre services to Pakistan, says a PSEB report on 'Setting up a call centre in Pakistan'.

At present there are 123 call centres operating in cities of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. On the average these call centres employ around 3000 agents. 

Pakistan is at the threshold of one of the greatest opportunities in the global BPO market. It has virtually all of the pre-requisites for success ranging from low cost to government incentives and funding, it says.

"India has become very successful in BPO since big business groups started building IT facilities instead of coal mine shafts... same is true for Pakistan. The shift from traditional business towards an information based economy will only happen when established businesses start entering the IT and IT-enabled services business segment, the report says.

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