Outsource Zone experiencing bumper year
Companies using facility increase 23%
Dubai: Outsource Zone, a member of Tecom Investments, is experiencing "overwhelming" growth in the outsourcing industry.
"The growth took us by surprise," Esmail Al Naqi, executive director of Dubai Outsource Zone, said.
"This year, the zone saw a 23 per cent increase in the number of companies and is expecting many more by the end of the year. The total number is up to 105 companies.
"Today, we are running at 100 per cent occupancy within the zone and we are expecting new buildings to be delivered within a month.
"We have a solid pipeline for these buildings. Overall, it has been a very positive year and this is where the role of the outsourcing phenomena comes from," he said.
During the global downturn, companies have been more inclined to outsource their peripheral business needs, with cost-cutting and making efficiencies the main drivers.
"Companies find the best solution can be found in DOZ, either through their reengineering their back office operations and consolidating it back in DOZ or outsourcing it to a third party, operational in the zone or elsewhere in the UAE," Al Naqi said.
The largest portion of companies in the DOZ is from the banking and fin-ance sectors, which make up 47 per cent.
Al Naqi said the reason for this is the maturity of the sector, as well as the high costs associated with it.
Meanwhile, instead of providing competition to the world's largest outsourcer, India, the zone plays a complementary role by filling gaps in the market such as multi-lingual talent.
"Our focus is mainly on local and regional markets of Arab-speaking countries. All our clients are generated from the local market," he said.
One of the objectives of DOZ is to work with outsourcing companies in India to encourage them to expand their operations to Dubai and "diversify their offerings," Al Naqi said.
The zone is expecting growth to pick up even further next year, hitting 40 per cent, with most of the demand generated from the banking sector.
"Banks that stopped expanding at the end of last year, due to the market downturn, are talking to us again," he said. "We are seeing a positive upstream in the market trend."
