Mexico to Lead Latin American Outsourcing

Mexico will be the most likely of all Latin American countries to see a call center outsourcing boom through 2007, due to it having the most stable government and economy in the region, says consulting firm Datamonitor. The report, "Opportunities in Caribbean and Latin American Call Center Markets to 2007," claims that Mexico has a number of distinct advantages in attracting call center investment. In addition to its political stability, relatively sound economy, and close geographic proximity to the United States and South America, Mexico is a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and possesses a skilled, bilingual, and inexpensive labor pool, the study says. "With a steadily expanding Hispanic population in the U.S., Mexico is able to leverage its qualified and inexpensive labor pool to service these customers," David Spindel, managing analyst at Datamonitor, says in the report. "The U.S. government estimates that in 2000 alone, over 20 million Americans were Hispanic, representing 12 percent of the country's population and an increase of 57.9 percent since 1990. According to a recent Datamonitor report, The American Ethnic Consumer, Hispanic spending power in the U.S. was $580 billion in 2002, revealing lucrative potential lucrative exists for outsourcers looking to target this segment of the population." Mexico could see its number of call center agents jump from 2002's total of 51,000 to as many as 190,000 in 2007, Spindel says, due to all these factors in its favor. Apart from Mexico, there are other countries will see impressive growth over the next few years, Spindel says in the report. "By 2007, the number of agent positions will climb to over 670,000 (from a current total of approximately 200,000) and while overall growth for the region is promising, an array of challenges facing some of these nations may stifle near-term success," Spindel says, naming political and economic stability as the key obstacles. Following closely behind Mexico as a viable call center location was Chile, which also weathered political and economic upheaval better than other Latin American countries, Spindel says.