02-18-2004, 05:03 AM
<b>Mansingh allays fears about outsourcing</b>
A Correspondent | February 18, 2004 03:38 IST
Lalit Mansingh, India's ambassador to the US, has sought to allay fears that outsocuring of jobs by American companies to countries like India is a threat to the US economy.
Defending the business practice, Mansingh told his audience at the Joan Kroc Performing Arts Center in San Diego last week that outsourcing accounts for a paltry 200,000 American jobs while the country boasts of some 138 millions jobs. 'There is no need for panic," Mansingh as quoted as saying by the Union-Tribune Journal.
'By helping the US companies to reduce their labor costs while maintaining productivity, outsourcing helps the US economy become more efficient,' Mansingh said.
Outsourcing of information technology jobs, he said aid, is not a zero-sum proposition for the United States but 'a win-win situation for both countries.'
The Tribune report said quoting Mansingh that U.S. companies have spent $7 billion on outsourced work in India, including software engineering, data entry and customer service operations. Those companies, Mansingh said, have saved $26 billion in the process which they can invest in new jobs in the US.
Mansingh's remarks came on the heels of remarks by N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which prepared the Economic Report of the Presiden t. .
'Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade. More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And that's a good thing,' Mankiw said last week.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has warned that the growing movement to curb outsourcing, not just here in the United States, but also in other countries that seek to protect indigenous jobs from foreign competition, will have deleterious economic effects.
'I am optimistic that we and our global trading partners will shun that path. The evidence is simply too compelling that our mutual interests are best served by promoting the free flow of goods and services among our increasingly flexible and dynamic market economies,' he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
A Correspondent | February 18, 2004 03:38 IST
Lalit Mansingh, India's ambassador to the US, has sought to allay fears that outsocuring of jobs by American companies to countries like India is a threat to the US economy.
Defending the business practice, Mansingh told his audience at the Joan Kroc Performing Arts Center in San Diego last week that outsourcing accounts for a paltry 200,000 American jobs while the country boasts of some 138 millions jobs. 'There is no need for panic," Mansingh as quoted as saying by the Union-Tribune Journal.
'By helping the US companies to reduce their labor costs while maintaining productivity, outsourcing helps the US economy become more efficient,' Mansingh said.
Outsourcing of information technology jobs, he said aid, is not a zero-sum proposition for the United States but 'a win-win situation for both countries.'
The Tribune report said quoting Mansingh that U.S. companies have spent $7 billion on outsourced work in India, including software engineering, data entry and customer service operations. Those companies, Mansingh said, have saved $26 billion in the process which they can invest in new jobs in the US.
Mansingh's remarks came on the heels of remarks by N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which prepared the Economic Report of the Presiden t. .
'Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade. More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And that's a good thing,' Mankiw said last week.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has warned that the growing movement to curb outsourcing, not just here in the United States, but also in other countries that seek to protect indigenous jobs from foreign competition, will have deleterious economic effects.
'I am optimistic that we and our global trading partners will shun that path. The evidence is simply too compelling that our mutual interests are best served by promoting the free flow of goods and services among our increasingly flexible and dynamic market economies,' he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.