Beyond India: Indian Outsourcer Turns To Malaysia 2Beyond India: Indian Outsourcer Turns To Malaysia 2

Add Malaysia to your short list of tech and business process outsourcing destinations. Satyam is building a 2,000-seat application development center in Cyberjaya, about 30 miles south of Kuala Lumpur, that will be its largest outside its home country of India.

The 15-acre facility, Satyam’s second in the country, should be ready within 12 months to serve customers in the United States, the Middle East, and Asia. Why Malaysia? Advanced infrastructure, IT talent, and competitive costs, says Satyam chairman Ramalinga Raju.

Satyam is one of a number of outsourcers responding to India’s rising salaries and tightening labor market by looking offshore. A.T. Kearney last year ranked Malaysia the world’s third most attractive outsourcing destination, behind India and China.

But India’s still No. 1. Cisco CEO John Chambers was there last week to say the company will triple its Indian workforce to 6,000 by 2010 and make the country home to a "globalization center" that includes business development, marketing, and finance along with the engineering and customer support functions most often set in India.