The A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index analyzes the top 50 services locations worldwide against 41 measurements in three major categories: cost, people skills and availability, and business environment.

Because cost advantages have been the primary impetus behind offshoring, financial factors constitute 40 percent of the total Index weight. People skills and availability and business environment each receive a 30 percent weighting.

India and China continue to lead the Index by a wide margin, with declines in cost advantage offset by further improvements in talent supply and business environment.

South East Asian countries reinforce their position as the primary alternates to India and China, with all six major ASEAN markets (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) now ranked among the top 20 locations.

Reflecting new policy initiatives to promote service exports in many countries, Latin America performs well, with all five major contenders (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay) rising in the rankings.

As projected in previous years, newer contenders in Central and Eastern Europe are increasingly outshining more established players, as Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Baltic States move ahead, while the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland slip in the rankings.

The Middle East and Africa continue to rise in visibility, with Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Ghana, South Africa, Israel and Turkey all maintaining or improving their position, while Mauritius, Morocco and Senegal debut in the rankings

While most "on-shore" or "near-shore" locations in developed countries improved their absolute scores, almost all fell in the rankings, as emerging markets improved their people skills and environment scores at a faster rate.

"While total compensation costs for sample positions like IT programmers or call center representatives rose by 5-10% in most developed countries, average wages for similar positions in India, China, the Philippines and parts of Eastern Europe and Latin America grew anywhere from 20% to 40%," said Martin Walker, senior director the Global Business Policy Council, the A.T. Kearney sponsor of the research.

"At the same time, we have seen telecom costs in many emerging markets drop by 25% or more, as competition and volumes in the telecom market increase. Similarly, we saw double-digit growth in university enrollment in countries like China, Brazil and Egypt, and the number of firms with quality endorsements like Carnegie Mellon's CMMI certification and the ISO 27001 data-security certification almost doubled in several emerging markets."

1. India26. Tunisia2. China27. Ghana3. Malaysia28. Lithuania4. Thailand29. Sri Lanka5. Brazil30. Pakistan6. Indonesia31. South Africa7. Chile32. Jamaica8. Philippines33. Romania9. Bulgaria34. Costa Rica10. Mexico35. Canada11. Singapore36. Morocco12. Slovakia37. Russia13. Egypt38. Israel14. Jordan39. Senegal15. Estonia40. Germany 16. Czech Republic41. Panama17. Latvia42. United Kingdom 18. Poland43. Spain19. Vietnam44. New Zealand20. United Arab Emirates45. Australia21. United States 46. Portugal22. Uruguay47. Ukraine23. Argentina48. France 24. Hungary49. Turkey25. Mauritius50. Ireland

Global Services Location Index 2006