Mexico: The only country in America that rated "very good" in Gartner's 30 Leading Locations for Offshore Services

Gartner has selected the top 30 countries for offshore services and rated each one according to 10 criteria.

Regional Summaries - Americas

Although only seven countries from the Americas appeared in the final list of 30, these countries are becoming (and, in some cases, already are) an attractive proposition for the largest buying market for offshore services — the U.S. Although only Canada was rated "excellent" for language (with fluent English and French), Latin American countries are able to leverage their Spanish-language skills increasingly in the U.S.; an increasing number of U.S. enterprises now require Spanish language from their providers for communication with parts of their workforce that speak Spanish as a first language.

Generally, a lack of government support to offshore initiatives has restricted development by countries in the Americas, with only Mexico rated "very good," although Brazil, Canada and Panama merited a "good" rating. Canada and Mexico also scored very well in the labor pool category; both of them placed higher than Brazil. The region performed creditably in terms of infrastructure, with Argentina and Panama being the only countries to rate lower than "good"; predictably, Canada was rated "excellent." In the educational system category, both Brazil and Costa Rica were only rated fair while Panama was rated "poor"; once more, Canada led the ratings.