Morocco to be French & Spanish BPO Destination - McKinsey

McKinsey, in one of its latest reports, has assessed Morocco to fast emerge as an outsourcing destination of choice for European companies looking at servicing French and Spanish clients.

The study claims that, between 2003 and 2018, outsourcing business could add 0.3 percent annually to the country’s GDP growth, reduce its international trade deficit by around 35 percent, and create a total of around 100,000 new jobs.

The consulting firm also claims that the BPO industry can offer large scale investment and employment opportunities to help offset the downturn in its traditional sectors like textiles and food processing. McKinsey considered a number of factors including the impact of globalization on the value chain and also benchmarked the country against 11 others before concluding on the opportunities offered by the BPO sector.

The prime factor making the country appealing is the availability of low cost and abundant labor resource. Other factors include its geographic proximity to France, and better telecommunications infrastructure. The report asks Morocco to capitalize on its strong position against competitors such as Mauritius, Senegal, and Tunisia.

Currently, the country's outsourcing market, with an estimated turnover of EUR 85 million, includes 50 mostly small providers that are expected to employ a total of about 10,000 people by the end of 2005. Morocco has already captured almost half of the call centers market servicing predominantly French-speaking companies. Recently, Telefónica, a Spanish telecom operator, had established a captive call center in northern Morocco, where Spanish is the second language.

Further, the report has stated that for further progress, the country should focus its efforts on 10 to 12 niches within selected BPO and IT functions.