India's REAL competitor

I find myself amused, and a little confused, by this little article . It proclaims that the latest country to join - and lead - the outsourcing bandwagon is tiny Costa Rica. Amusement because of the specious reasons the writer gives to justify his view (and because Costa Rica has a total population of about 40 lakhs). Confusion because the intent - the real intent - of the article is unclear. Two American consultancy companies are glorified as moving to Costa Rica, but the total manpower they have there is about 130 people. The article says Intel, Motorola, and 'other smaller firms' have low-cost work being done in CR, but no figures or details are mentioned, so we have no way of verifying. For all we know they may have five teenagers packing the chips in plastic cases.

They found a guy willing to say that "Wages in India are lower, but Costa Rica's advantages outweigh the slightly higher costs". The advantage, by the way, is "U.S. executives tire of long flights back and forth from India or China along with language barriers". Right, guys, that long daily commute to Bangalore is really taxing, eh? And of course Spanish is less of a barrier than British English.

The professed intent is definitely bullshit. This article is not about any general trend towards CR. It was written either to advertise the two companies mentioned("we're better than the others, we dont go to India, only to CR"), or to try to attract investment in CR. Any guesses?

"India and Costa Rica are the hottest spots now," said Joanne Rainey, owner of Southwest Outsource Purchasing LLC, "China is getting a little saturated."
ROTFLMAO. So remember, Indian Express, ToI, Rediff - our real competitor is Costa Rica, not China.