GEORGE TOWN, June 2 — Penang is tapping into the rapidly growing outsourcing sector with an aim to create 4,000 high-income jobs within the next three years, InvestPenang director Datuk Lee Kah Choon said today.

The state has plans to turn Bayan Baru into an international outsourcing hub and attract more shared services and outsourcing (SSO) companies, which will create more high-income jobs for locals.

“We already have over 26 SSO companies providing more than 7,000 high income jobs to locals and our aim is to increase this by 60 per cent in the next three years,” Lee said.

He noted that the SSO sector is growing rapidly, quoting national figures by Multimedia Development Corporation (MDec) that showed revenue in the sector has doubled from RM6.39 billion in 2009 to RM12.79 billion in 2013.

The sector saw a growth in revenue of 22 per cent between 2012 and 2013 and recorded a total export sales of RM8.4 billion last year, which was an increase of 23 per cent.

The special advisor to the Penang chief minister told a press conference here that the state has put in place a comprehensive plan to tap into this by linking together several massive upcoming and existing projects specifically for the outsourcing sector.

This includes the recently-inked memorandum of understanding between Penang Development Corporation (PDC) with Singapore’s state-owned investment firm Temasek and the Economic Development Innovations Singapore Pte Ltd (Edis) to develop a RM11.3 billion project of technology park and outsourcing centre.

Lee said the project, which includes the construction of a two-block Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Prime in Bayan Baru and Penang International Technology Park (PITP) in Batu Kawan, is set to generate about RM24 million in economic value.

BPO Prime, which is located at the current PDC site in Bayan Baru, will kick off first so PDC will relocate to the nearby Mayang Mall office space and its current building demolished to make way for the project.

“It will take between two to three years for BPO Prime to be completed while the PITP will be developed within the next five to 10 years,” he said.

BPO Prime will consists of two blocks of 25-storey and 29-storey office buildings built specifically to meet requirements by outsourcing companies.

“These are Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC)-status buildings and the space will be filled up immediately as we are getting in demands for more of such office space in the BPO and SSO sector,” Lee said.

Due to the upcoming BPO Prime in Bayan Baru which is within walking distance from nearby existing facilities such as One Precinct, Mayang Mall and Suntech City, the whole area is set to become a BPO hub, he added.

This development is on top of the other planned Penang BPO Park in Bayan Lepas that covers 74 acres and the recently completed Technocentre next to the Motorola main plant in Bayan Lepas.

On the mainland side, the PITP is only one of the many other planned projects that include the Batu Kawan Industrial Park covering 1,500 acres, an integrated live-learn-work-play township and a Penang Education Hub, all in Batu Kawan.

“According to the global trends, the costs of setting up SSO companies in China and India are increasing so this is a good time to attract international companies to set up their outsourcing centres here in Penang where costs are lower and we offer complete facilities and infrastructure,” Lee said.

The SSO sector covers information technology outsourcing (ITO), BPO and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO).

The sector covers services such as IT infrastructure management, IT consulting services, network and desktop management, contact centres, finance and accounting, human resources, legal services, sales and marketing, market research and customer analytics, financial and stock market research, engineering services and product design, research and development.