The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has officially opened its investment call centre in Moroka, Soweto.
The call centre, which will operate as a public-private partnership (PPP) model, aims to improve the investment climate in the country and reduce the costs of doing business. The centre will register and monitor the processing of investment applications valued at over R100 million.
Trade and industry minister Rob Davies says the 10-seater centre will be run as a pilot project for a period of three years. The DTI says if the pilot is successful, the project will be expanded and other government departments will adopt the concept.
Speaking at the opening, Davies said increasing investment is a government priority. He said the DTI would continue to find ways to reduce administrative and regulatory barriers, and facilitate smooth entry of foreign investments into SA.
“We need to constantly innovate and ensure we are providing an environment which is conducive to investment. And we also need to provide services that attract foreign investors. We are trying to reach targets in reaching productive activity, growth in employment, decreasing inequalities, tackling poverty and providing decent employment,” he said.
In an effort to accelerate local economic growth, Cabinet approved a plan to adopt business process outsourcing (BPO) as a key industry for national development in 2006. The DTI was expected to spend R2 billion over a period of three years on this scheme - and aimed to make SA the world's third-biggest BPO centre, after India and the Philippines, by 2008.
The plans aimed to involve the private sector in the marketing and easy entry into SA for the expansion of existing BPO operations, skills development, simplifying administrative procedures and other investment incentives.
“We have in the past years updated our strategies exports and foreign economic offices, and embarked on training programmes to ensure all export and investment promotion activities are undertaken by people who are appropriately trained,” says Davies.
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