India preferred destination for outsourcing: Premji

Bangalore, Apr 6 (UNI) Wipro Chairman Azim Premji today reiterated that India has emerged the preferred destination for outsourcing and offshoring.

Big corporations world over have understood that the only way for them to remain competitive was by reducing costs, without losing out on quality and there were many reasons why India was attractive from their point of view, he said while addressing a three-day international conference of the World Customs Organisation on Information and Communication Technology.

The reasons, according to him, included long established legal and accounting system, an independent judiciary, a free and vibrant press and a strong tradition of entrepreneurship.

Mr Premji said that while the IT industry continued to register a robust growth, other industries were also showing promising growth.

He made a pointed reference to the automotive sector with export of cars increasing nearly five fold to 1,26,000 between 1998-99 and 2003-04.

''As India moves ahead with its economic reforms, there are opportunities in many other sectors, including energy, telecom, insurance and financial services, manufacturing transportation and urban development,'' he said.

Mr Premji said the Customs department faced a huge challenge of retaining and improving its services following a unique opportunity provided by reforms, fuelling the country's economic growth. The challenges would be more widespread in terms of logistics and would create opportunities for ports in various parts of the country to develop and grow.

Time required to clear customs was a challenge faced by the department as it was an important parameter for business in a globalised world. Referring to the Singapore example, he said several companies were having spare part inventory in that country because of the speed with which the inventory could be cleared and shipped out to any part of the world, especially Asia and Australia.

Geographically, India was better positioned than Singapore, but it was the short cycle times that ports took to clear goods that had led to Singapore becoming a trading hub in Asia, he added.

UNI