You read it here first - and it turns out Duncan Aitchison was right. A few weeks ago, the partner at outsourcing advisor told The Knowledge that India was still king of the offshoring destinations, but that a bunch of other destinations were biting hard on its heels.

Now analyst Gartner has released research that comes to similar conclusions, suggesting India remains the undisputed leader in offshore services - but that countries such as China, Russia and Brazil are providing increasingly credible alternatives.

Gartner predicts offshore spending will increase by 60 per cent in Europe, and 40 per cent in the US, next year. The analyst's top 30 locations for offshore services are:

• Americas - Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and Uruguay
• Asia/Pacific - Australia, China, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Vietnam
• Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Northern Ireland, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine

Interesting stuff from Gartner. But some of Aitchison's more far-out predictions for offshoring growth - Ghana and Mauritius - fail to make the analyst's list.

One thing they do agree on, however is Aitchison's comment: "Everyone across the world is looking at offshoring."