Top 8 global cities in terms of outsourcing; India dominates, Philippines a close second

New Delhi: India continues to remain as popular destination for offshore IT and business process outsourcing services market, shows a recent report by consulting firm Tholons.In its ranking of the top 100 outsourcing destinations, Tholons' report shows that the world's top eight outsourcing cities are located in India and the Philippines.The first spot was held by Bangalore. But the striking part was Manila edging out Mumbai, to become the second top outsourcing destination in the whole world. The key to the explosive growth of Manila's outsourcing industry is considered to be huge pool of young and educated English-speaking workers in the Philippines as well as infrastructure and government support. Already the country has identified 10 cities that it aims to develop as hubs for outsourcing. Some of these cities appear on the Tholons ranking.The report shows that India's advantage in the BPO sector is because of the market size, which is far greater than that of the Philippines. In 2012, India employed 2.8 million workers in the BPO industry, while the Philippines had just around 750,000 in the same year.Another reason for India's dominance is because of an "unbeatable mix" of low costs, deep technical and language skills, mature vendors and supportive government policies.Here are the top ten cities in terms of outsourcing:Cebu City (Philippines)Rank in 2014: 8Rank in 2013: 8PuneRank in 2014: 7Rank in 2013: 7HyderabadRank in 2014: 6Rank in 2013: 6ChennaiRank in 2014: 5Rank in 2013: 5Delhi (NCR)Rank in 2014: 4Rank in 2013: 4MumbaiRank in 2014: 3Rank in 2013: 2Manila (Philippines) NCRRank in 2014: 2Rank in 2013: 3BangaloreRank in 2014: 1Rank in 2013: 1(The story first appeared in Tech In Asia)