Bangladesh has moved four places up in Global Service Location Index (GSLI) this year, thanks to its significant gains in IT outsourcing, business processing outsourcing and back office jobs.

The country secured 22nd position in 2015 from 26th a year before when it debuted on the index, according to the ranking released on Monday by AT Kearney, the world's leading management consulting firm.

The GSLI ranks the top 55 countries for outsourcing worldwide on the basis of metrics in three categories: financial attractiveness, people skills and availability, and business environment.

In South Asia, only India and Sri Lanka are ahead of Bangladesh.

Highlighting the success, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak said the several international recognitions Bangladesh achieved in the past few years were results of different effective initiatives taken by the government.

"We really need to focus on the development of the industry. In association with the industry, the government will undertake various initiatives including e-governance in order to help domestic companies expand their footprint in the local market development," he said in a Facebook post yesterday.

Shameem Ahsan, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, said, "Moving up by four notches [in the GSLI] proves that we have achieved sustainable growth in the IT sector."

"We need to be more persistent in developing local market if we want to make it to the top 10 in next three years," he said.

In the 2016 GSLI, India, China, and Malaysia remain the top three offshoring destinations, and Asia continues to dominate with six of its countries among the top 10.

While this year's report examines the trajectory of offshoring cost arbitrage to low-cost developing countries and the rise of some new locations, the real story lies in the disruption being felt throughout this already disruptive industry in levels of automation of business processes.

"Even though the top six or seven countries are landing in the same order this year as 2014, looking forward, this could all change radically because the very nature of what's being outsourced is changing," said Arjun Sethi, global leader of AT Kearney's Strategic IT Practice and principal author of the study.

"For the first time, we have a trend -- automation -- that could displace the leadership of the likes of India and China in outsourcing. Technology's relentless progress continues to transform in unanticipated and fundamentally different ways not only where work is moving to, but how and by whom -- or by what --it is being done."

"The new business model associated with this automation threatens established concepts of offshoring, while expanding the market," he said.

The GSLI, launched in 2004, helps companies make key location decisions for offshoring and industry development projects with objective guidance.