Meeting Pakistan’s Outsourcing Millionaire

Meet the millionaire. No, this isn’t a reference to some corrupt politician or government officer. If you’ve driven through Shahrae Faisal in Karachi or gone through the daily newspapers recently, you must have already seen her, a call centre agent, complete with beaming smile and stylish headset. Comparatively, Pakistan appears as a weak blip on the outsourcing radar screen even though it seems to be gaining strength, at least in the call centre business spot. Our share from the global BPO business pie stands at a dismal 10 million dollars with an optimistic projection to touch 20 million figure by June 2005. Just a couple of years ago, there were only six call centres functioning in the country but in the last six months there has been 100 per cent growth. There are now about 80 international call centres and more than 30 domestic call centres registered with the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB), utilizing more than 2300 agents.