LONDON
AFP APRIL 26, 2004
Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa are to become the main beneficiaries from Western Europe's outsourcing of its call centres, an independent analyst group said today.

The number of call centres in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) will increase by more than 50 per cent from 29,000 at the end of 2003 to 45,000 by 2008, Datamonitor said in a report.

Meanwhile the number of call-centre job positions in the EMEA region will grow from 1.5 million at the end of 2003 to 2.1 million by 2008, it added.

"The biggest growth will be in Eastern Europe and (the) Middle East and Africa not only due to their youth, but also as a result of call-centre outsourcing from Western Europe," Datamonitor said.

A number of leading firms in Britain, including BT Group, insurance firms Aviva and Prudential, and supermarket giant Tesco, have already outsourced call centres to Asia in a bid to slash costs