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Boost for W Cape BPO

Farzana Rasool
By Farzana Rasool, ITWeb IT in Government Editor.
Johannesburg, 29 Jun 2012

A new call centre launched by Western Cape premier Helen Zille, in Woodstock this week, represents a significant investment in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.

The office of the premier says Zille was joined by finance, economic development and tourism minister Alan Winde at the official launch.

The call centre's establishment is the result of a partnership between UK mobile network operator Everything Everywhere, and Merchants, a subsidiary of Dimension Data.

The call centre will become fully operational from July, will employ 190 staff and serve Everything Everywhere's client base of 27 million customers that use its mobile, landline and broadband telecommunications services.

Growing investment

“BPO is considered a strategic growth sector of the Western Cape economy, particularly in light of its potential to create employment opportunities for youth. In collaboration with Business Process enabling SA (BPeSA) Western Cape, a special purpose vehicle for the BPO sector funded by the Department of Economic Development and Tourism and the City of Cape Town, as well as the national Department of Trade and Industry,” says the office of the premier.

The Western Cape government has been striving to attract international investment into the Western Cape BPO sector and market the region as an investment destination of choice. It adds that the sector now employs approximately 33 500 people and is worth an estimated R7.9 billion to the regional economy.

"During the 2011/12 financial year, our target was to grow new investment for this [BPO] sector by R250 million; we far exceeded our expectations and grew new investment to R1 billion," said Winde.

“The provincial government has ensured a specific focus on the BPO sector, because it is labour-intensive, has relatively low barriers to entry and is the most cost-effective sector in creating employment, particularly for the youth as the demographic with the highest rates of unemployment. Seventy percent of all employees in the sector are between the ages of 18 and 35 and carry only a matric, thus call centre work is an important avenue for many youth to become work-ready and gain skills and experience.”

Zille said at the launch that government must understand its role in helping to roll out economic opportunities for young people. “Our role is to provide infrastructure and an enabling business environment. It is to bring together partners who could make an economic sector a success because partnership drives success.”

She added that the government must also facilitate skills development and stimulate skills supply in partnership with tertiary education institutions for sectors where there is skills demand.

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