NEW DELHI, MARCH 31 Here's another reason for BPO firms to cheer. India has topped the global charts of preferred offshoring destinations beating China, Malaysia, the Phillipines and rivals in Europe and Latin America, market analyst AT Kearney said on Wednesday.

Not only does India beat some of the more tech savvy nations, it also leads in the neck-to-neck struggle for supremacy with China, thanks to its “mature market” and “quality of IT education and management”. Even as China trails, its cost advantages and large educated labour pool helped it to grow as an offshore destination for Japanese and Korean companies, the survey warns.

However, on several counts including cost advantages and people skills, Kearney’s ’Offshore Location Index’ for 2004 has placed China, Malaysia and other Asians, Europeans and Latin Americans after India in the index of preferred destinations.

India leads the rank not just for its cost advantages, but also for offshoring experience and people skill, the report finds. China trails after India in experience, followed by Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. “This confirms the strength of Asian economies in offshore competition,” AT Kearney’s survey claims. In a separate index for offshoring, the Czech Repepublic ranks fourth and Singapore is placed at the fifth, followed by the Philippines, Brazil, Canada and Chile. Poland has found the tenth slot, followed by Hungary and New Zealand.

AT Kearney has also indicated there is a sizeable competition from various quarters. Malaysia and the Philippines are emerging Asian contenders while the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary in Europe and Brazil and Chile in Latin America were coming up fast.

In Asia, Singapore topped the “business environment” index thanks to aggressive government promotions, excellent education and infrastructure, high social and political stability and strong Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection.

“India has attracted a lion’s shore of offshore migration to date without any impact on cost levels and while India’s wages were comparable to other low-cost asian locations, favourable tax rates and competitive infrastructure costs help India maintain its overall cost advantage,” Kearney said.