While majority of the business outsourcing contracts are awarded to Asian countries, two European nations -- Poland and Hungary -- are also high up in the league to bag outsourcing contracts.

"The majority of the outsourcing orders are being awarded to India, China, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and the Czech Republic. But Poland and Hungary, part of the European Union, are also high up in the outsourcing league," according to an Indo-German Chamber report.

After a slow start, European countries were also bagging outsourcing contracts, it said.

The report referred to Forrester Research which said that European information and communication technology outsourcing market amounted to over $95 billion in 2003, an increase of 74 per cent over the previous year.

The research also predicted that the European outsourcing market would grow to $117 billion in 2004 and $143 billion by 2005.

While the BPO sector is growing by 11 per cent annually worldwide, in Europe it is clocking 20 per cent.