Go offshore but do your homework

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01 April 2008

It's possible for telecoms companies to use so-called offshore suppliers of technology and services with a clear conscience, but first they should ensure their procurement is responsible and sustainable, writes Meryl Bushell

Meryl Bushell: operating in global markets is something to be embraced, not avoided

It is nearly five years since the investment bank Goldman Sachs published a ground-breaking report which forecast that the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — would overtake the world's established G6 economic powers by the year 2050.
In recent years, Indonesia and South Africa have been added to this list of powerful emerging economies.
In the five years since the Goldman Sachs report, there has been a huge boom in the offshoring of both manufacturing and services, with every major telecoms manufacturer sourcing at least part of its research and development, software development and component manufacturing from emerging markets.
Despite the prevalence of sourcing from the "BRICs", there is still a strong nervousness, fuelled by newspaper headline horror stories, of the pitfalls of such practices.
If you believed everything you read...

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