Dubai's outsourcing hub has attracted Dh551 million in investments so far, with 50 regional and international companies in the pipeline to set up back-office operations in the zone, an executive said yesterday.
Director of Dubai Outsource Zone Ismail Al Naqi said the free zone, which is positioning itself as a hub for high-end outsourcing, aims to attract $10 billion (Dh36.7bn) in 10 years and be home to 100,000 workers.
Al Naqi said the zone aims to "close the gaps" opened by other global outsourcing destinations, such as India and South Africa, and will focus on four core areas: banking and finance, health care, insurance and IT.
"We're not talking about things like normal data processing, data entry or typically in-bound call centre functions," said Al Naqi.
He said the primary focus of the free zone is to attract analysts, research and development, higher-end call centres, online medical consultancy and online legal consultancy.
"We are talking a little bit higher on the value chain, things that really require knowledge workers, in certain cases PhDholders to basically be able to interact with the right client," the director added.
The idea is catching on regionally.Arab Bank yesterday signed a deal to centralise its entire regional back office operation to Dubai, where it will set up a "shared-service" hub.
But considering Dubai's proximity to India the leader in outsourcing the zone could present a challenge in providing a costeffective alternative.
Arab Bank's senior vice-president and UAE area manager Mohammed Azab said the Dubai-based zone would fill a need for large corporates such as the bank, which has branches throughout the Middle East.
"India is a place where we see a lot of global outsourcing with competitive costs. But India is a country where we have no operations: it is a bit foreign to us. We are predominately an Arab bank operating within the Middle East. So Dubai presents us with the best opportunity," he said.
Azab said centralising all backoffice operations in the zone will help the bank achieve standardisation and improve processing capacity.
Much of the zone's success, meanwhile, will rest on tapping into business opportunities presented by other free zones in Dubai including the Dubai International Financial Centre.
By Daliah Merzaban
© Emirates Today 2006
