After hearing the outrageous news the other day that the federal government is subsidizing the offshoring of IT work to Sri Lanka, it now turns out that the same is occurring in Armenia.

Moreover, this new article has a couple of interesting wrinkles. First, it's happening as we speak, with Jonathan Hale, USAID deputy assistant administrator for Europe & Eurasia, currently on a four-day trip to Armenia to work these out with the Armenian government. Second, this article confirms that at least one American company is a partner in the operation.[Now It's Armenia: USAID Funds IT In Eurasia, |After pledging millions to bolster outsourcing in South Asia, federal agency extends largesse to a new recipient, By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek, August 5, 2010]

One rather unfortunate point in the article is that union official Sawade seems to buy into the notion that no Americans could do this work without retraining. The fact is that many of the U.S. un/underemployed already have background like Java EE.

If you missed my review of the InformationWeek article on the Sri Lanka case, it's archived here.

As the saying goes, "Where's the outrage?"

Norm