The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Anxiety over outsourcing industry “overblown”: U.S. Consul-General

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Friday, Mar 27, 2009
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Anxiety over outsourcing industry “overblown”: U.S. Consul-General

Staff Reporter

“There is no question of restricting any visas”

— Photo: V. Ganesan

HONOURING THE GUEST: M. Rafeeque Ahmed, chairman, FICCI, TNSC, presenting a shawl to Minister for Information Technology Poongothai Aladi Aruna, at a seminar in Chennai on Thursday. P. Murari, advisor to president of FICCI, Ar Rm Arun, convenor, IT and communication panel, FICCI, TNSC, and Andrew T. Simkin, U.S. Consul-General in Chennai, are in the picture.

CHENNAI: Uncertainty over whether the United States is headed towards protectionism and anxiety over its negative impact on the outsourcing industry is “overblown,” said Andrew T. Simkin, U.S. Consul-General in Chennai.

He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Indo-US outsourcing business: The Road Ahead’ organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Tamil Nadu State Council (FICCI, TNSC), here on Thursday.

“Once and for all, we have learned that the success of the American economy is inextricably linked to the global economy,” he said, quoting U.S. President Barack Obama from his recent article, and added that there were clear signals from the U.S. President in support of free trade.

U.S. companies took decisions depending on what made business sense, rather than on sentiment, he said. For the most part, the business decisions of U.S. companies were not subject to government encouragement or veto, he added.

Visa clarification

Clarifying the recent news reports on H1B visa restrictions, Lawrence P. Lane, vice consul, Consulate General of the United States in Chennai, said that financial institutions that received money from public funding had to show that they had done due-diligence to ensure that there were no U.S. citizens who could fill the vacancies before granting a visa to a foreign worker.

There was no question of restricting any visas, he said.

According to 2008 data, it was found that there were only 13 such institutions who had received public funds and they accounted for roughly 700 H1B visa petitions, which was less than one per cent of the total number of petitions filed, he added.

IT Secretary P.W.C. Davidar said that instead of business process outsourcing, the term could be changed to “business in services,” as outsourcing had assumed negative connotations.

He said that restricting “business in services” may not be a good act to follow for the businesses which had been affected themselves. The focus had to be on what made business sense, he said. Instead of bringing barriers which would further demolish businesses in the U.S., public policy makers had to tackle the question of why jobs were leaving the U.S.

At this juncture, it was imperative to question what kind of free market we would be going into, he said. Changes in the reporting system that lessened the pressure and gave businesses fewer incentives to cheat were needed, he said.

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