OREANDA-NEWS. November 18, 2015. Nearly 600 businessmen from 40 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the United States, Europe and Asia participated in the fifth edition of Outsorurce2LAC, the region’s main global services outsourcing and offshoring forum.

The two-day event  was organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) together with the Mexican Exports and Investment Promotion Agency (ProMexico), and the Government of the State of Jalisco. Participants included international experts and representatives from governments and trade promotion agencies from 21 nations in the region, as well as service outsourcing industry associations from Mexico, Brazil, Russia, India, China and the European Union.

“Our region’s world-class global services providers are earning increasing international recognition. Outsource2LAC, already a market benchmark, is testament to that,” said the IDB’s Trade and Investment Unit Chief Fabrizio Opertti. “Geographic location, time zone, and a growing number of innovative companies are giving us a great competitive edge that we must maximize at this type of forum.”

The termsoutsourcing” and “offshoring” are used to describe corporations’ ever-growing trend to sub-contract services from external suppliers and to place part of their processes and services in foreign countries. Latin America is one of the regions that stand out the most from others in the competitive international industry of services delivery, whose total value is estimated to be \\$560 billion. The region’s services exports have grown at an annual rate of 11 percent over the past five years – far outpacing the average international growth of 6 percent, according to data provided by AT Kearney consultants.

Oursource2LAC’s plenary sessions and seminars look into a wide variety of issues: new technologies such as robotics and automation, as well as changes in the delivery of outsourcing services; distance-education services; new methods of finding financial resources and qualified human resources; information technology services for mobile devices; animation and videogame services; Israel as an applied-innovation model, and more.

The meeting’s agenda also includes matchmaking sessions that result in one-on-one business meetings with companies with similar business interests. Additionally, 30 companies were invited to take part in a bootcamp providing them with training to enable them to export, particularly in the areas of technology and digital market,with the help of experts from Google, Posible, Red Innova, the IDB, and others.

Outsource2LAC has been held annually since 2011 by the IDB, which organizes it through its ConnectAmericas.com online business networking portal, which has Google, DHL, Visa and Alibaba.com as associates. In the four previous Outsource2LAC events, nearly \\$50 million worth of transactions were generated by more than 3,500 business meetings held during the forums.

About the IDB

The Inter-American Development Bank is devoted to improving lives. Established in 1959, the IDB is a leading source of long-term financing for economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB also conducts cutting-edge research and provides policy advice, technical assistance and training to public and private sector clients throughout the region.