LONDON, UK: Egypt was awarded the prestigious title of Outsourcing Destination of the Year at the National Outsourcing Association's 2008 Awards held in London, beating rivals Philippines and Romania to the accolade.

The CEO of Egypt's Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) Dr. Hazem Abdelazim received the award on behalf of his government during a ceremony held at the Park Plaza Riverbank the other day, said press release.

More than 350 high-level executives and outsourcing professionals attended the event, hosted by comedian presenter Dominic Holland.

"This award recognizes the vast progress Egypt has made in the outsourcing market," said Abdelazim. "Egypt is slowly but surely putting its mark on the map of favored global services locations."

Abdelazim said Egypt's young population, a large multi-lingual workforce, a solid infrastructure and a competitive cost structure is fortified by unequivocal government support, making Egypt a compelling destination for outsourcing services.

According to the judges, Egypt won the award due to its language skills, young population and growing list of global sourcing investments, the release added.

In the words of Martyn Hart, chairman of the NOA, "At the NOA we strive to raise awareness of best practice in the outsourcing industry - the awards is core to this strategy.

The awards, which are in their fifth year, aim to reward organizations for success in outsourcing projects, as well as raising awareness of the importance of best practice in outsourcing.

Recently, Egypt was praised as "by far the Middle Eastern country currently best positioned to take advantage of the boom in outsourcing" in a report by the Yankee Group, the release added.

Companies such as Vodafone, Wipro, Satyam, Teleperformance, IBM, Microsoft, SQS and Valeo have invested recently in Egypt.