IDC, in one of its recent reports stated that the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan (APEJ) will continue to have a moderate BPO growth from 2006 to 2010, since much of APEJ will remain at the developmental stages of BPO adoption during this period.

Even though APEJ is a main center for BPO, majority of the contracts will still be derived from outside the region — mainly from the United States and Western Europe. Local adoption will be more opportunistic, according to IDC. Although processing services will continue as the dominant form of business outsourcing, more number of pilot BPO projects are expected to emerge.

Over the past 12 months, companies such as Accenture, EDS, HP and IBM have opened massive BPO centers in China, India and the Philippines, largely for servicing the United States and Europe, and not APEJ. In the light of these investments, IDC remains confident in its BPO outlook for the region, and predicts moderate growth and adoption. BPO in 2005 totaled $6 billion, and this figure is forecast to rise to about $14 billion by 2010 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of approximately 18%.