Infrastructure: Quality of electric supply

As with roads, the quality of electric infrastructure may not be an obvious metric to include in the evaluation of countries for offshore outsourcing. However, many leading countries do not have a reliable supply of electric power which impacts outsourcing operations in a couple of ways. First many companies have to bear the cost of installing and maintaining backup generators. Second, regular interruptions may still impact productivity of outsourcing operations and their less sophisticated suppliers.

Canada, the United States and the Czech Republic score at the top of the range. China and the Philippines are in the middle range and India and Pakistan are at the bottom.

The Global Competitive Index is published by the World Economic Forum in their annual Global Competitiveness Report. The index scores 133 economies from 0 to 7, with 7 being the best possible score. For the quality of electric supply index, survey respondents were asked "How does the quality of the electricity supply in your country (lack of interruptions and lack of voltage fluctuations) compare with that of other countries? (1 = worse than in most other countries; 7 = meets the highest standards in the world)"