India White Collars, Be A-Pac 'Predators'!

Salary hikes are accelerating in the Asia-Pacific as inflation moderates, pointing to a talent shortage building up in the region. Companies diversifying out of China, as also new investments in A-Pac, are routing capital and creating demand for high-skilled jobs the local economies are finding difficult to keep pace with. This poses an opportunity for white-collar Indians who are acquiring wage negotiating power not only from a domestic investment boom, but also from improving job prospects in the neighbourhood. Given their intricate economic connection to the Chinese economic machine, countries in Southeast Asia are an obvious choice of location for a 'China plus-one' supply chain strategy. India, too, is a contender for such global manufacturing investments. Either way, Indian job-seekers stand to gain.

Outside of China, India generates the highest volume of skills in demand in A-Pac. Where it runs into capacity constraints, Indian students make up sizeable populations in neighbourhood university campuses. GoI is also tweaking education policy to reorient skills supply to emerging sectors such as climate change. This should widen the funnel for skills as demand evolves in the region. Improving economic prospects, accommodative immigration policies and geographical proximity will strengthen Indian export of high-skilled workers in A-Pac. This would be despite India's reservations over integrating further with economies in the zone on account of an overwhelming Chinese presence. Migrant Indian workers will, at some point, guide India's Act East policy.

Southeast Asia should be rooting for India's emergence as an economic counterweight to China. Besides, India is a gateway for South Asia's manufacturing exports to Europe. It would make eminent sense for Southeast Asia to welcome Indian professionals and students as it draws more global capital to move up the manufacturing value chain. This could be a second wave of migration out of India that raises the region's economic profile.