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CT lures investors with free telecoms

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 15 Aug 2011

In an effort to boost business process outsourcing (BPO) in the Western Cape, Business Process enabling SA (BPeSA) Western Cape and the Department for Economic Development and Tourism have partnered with Internet Solutions (IS) to offer free telecom services to international investors.

The incentive will offer free international voice and data services over the IS multiprotocol label switching network for the first six months for all new offshore investors in the region.

BPeSA Western Cape CEO Gareth Pritchard says: “Traditionally, high telecoms costs have been a limiting factor for new investors; with the new incentive, this limitation has been significantly reduced.”

The new incentive complements the Department of Trade and Industry's nationwide incentive scheme, which gives wage subsidisation for local employees of R40 000 per employee for the first two years, and R32 000 for the third year.

“By combining these two offerings, the Western Cape is able to provide a highly-competitive value proposition that rivals the world's top BPO destinations,” says Pritchard.

Internet Solutions regional head Stuart Birch says: “This is a competitive offering and we are confident that companies will take up permanent residence in the Western Cape once the six-month trial period is completed.”

Western Cape minister for finance, economic development and tourism Alan Winde says the department is focused on building the province into an attractive place to live and work by increasing its competitive edge in terms of pricing and by building an appropriately skilled workforce.

Winde adds: “Major players, such as Bloomberg and Amazon, have recognised this and have chosen to base their operations here. This incentive will induce others to follow suit and puts us on track to build the Western Cape into a world-class BPO and call centre hub.”

The Western Cape's call centre industry is worth an estimated R6 billion and is responsible for 30 000 jobs in the Western Cape.

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