Britain has ruled out a 'protectionist response' to off-shoring by companies, especially to countries like India, and is gearing up to generate more and better jobs by raising skill levels, supporting enterprise and raising business innovation and productivity.
"Protectionism is clearly not the right response. We cannot have a protectionist response to off-shoring by companies at home, and nor should we," British Minister for Industry and the Regions, Jacqui Smith, told the House of Commons.
She noted that the United Kingdom's exports are worth £270 billion a year, including £86 billion of service exports.
"Many jobs depend on open markets abroad. Given our leading position as a global exporter of services, we must keep pressing for further opening up of markets for our exports. We are doing that in Europe through the proposed new services directive and in the wider world through the Doha round of the World Trade Organisation," she said Replying to a debate on an adjournment motion on Financial Services Jobs (Outsourcing), Smith shared the concerns of those immediately affected by plans to send financial services work offshore, particularly to India.
"We know that such announcements are painful, and that they affect many of the communities left devastated by the loss of manufacturing industry 20 years ago. We also take seriously their effect on local employment, not least because, they fall disproportionately on certain groups. However, we need to put the matter into perspective," she said.
Concurring with the observations made by Peter Luff, Labour MP, that "this is not a zero-sum game," Smith said headlines did not always tell the whole story.
"They miss the thousands of jobs created or safeguarded by companies choosing to locate in the UK. They also miss the many companies that consider off-shoring but choose to stay in the UK. Headlines report the jobs relocated to Asia and other developing countries, but not the 1 million people employed in the UK financial services sector.
"The decision about where to locate operations is a commercial matter for companies. Labour costs are one issue that companies may well consider, but there are others."
She said there are about 5,500 UK call centres, employing almost 400,000 workers.
"The skills and vital local knowledge of our work force, the stable economic background created by the government, and the UK's strong IT and telecommunications infrastructure mean that we remain well placed to attract call centre jobs in a competitive market.
"Given our language, location, infrastructure and customer service skills, Britain remains in a strong position to attract, in particular, high value-added call centre work."
As a remedy, she said, "We should be raising our game, ensuring that companies and their staff continually upgrade their skills and technologies."
She said the government has already commissioned a new call centre competitiveness study to ensure that "we maximize the advantages that I have outlined, as we compete worldwide for more high-skill, high-value and high-wage call centre jobs."
