BPO boss excited, looks forward to double-digit growth
In 2021, I hope that Jamaicans can illuminate our Vision 2030, capitalise on our creativity and innovation, leverage the vast opportunities discovered by many since the onset of COVID-19, and chart a course for success in the post-COVID-19 recovery.
The resilience of the BPO (business process outsourcing) operators and the pragmatic and swift actions taken by the association have coloured the road map for greater success in the coming years. The global services sector project, and investment in talent development, will reap positive returns, and double-digit growth is projected – organically from existing players, and from new players and new lines of business.
Some operators of high-volume employment-creating business process outsourcing (BPO) companies are staring anxiously at the looming December 31 deadline when current temporary work-from-home arrangements will end for the sector. With just days to go before the third extension of the current facility runs out, there is as yet no forward movement on the sector’s entreaties to the Government to create a permanent fix that would see BPO operations migrating legally to a virtual set-up under the existing special economic zones (SEZ) legislation.
A recommendation put forward in May by the Global Services Association of Jamaica, GSAJ, the umbrella organisation for the BPO sector, for a carve-out in the Special Economic Zone Act to allow some 25 per cent of employees to permanently work from home, is still on the table, but the Government does not appear to be swayed by the arguments put forward by the industry.
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WESTERN BUREAU:
Gloria Henry, president of the Global Services Association of Jamaica (GSAJ), is calling for the establishment of a field hospital in Montego Bay to supplement the scaled-down services being offered by the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH), which has been undergoing major restoration after a noxious-fumes issue emerged in 2016.
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Montego Bay being a critical hub in both the tourism and outsourcing sectors, Henry feels that with CRH not functioning at full capacity, it is critical to strengthen the existing situation to handle whatever situation might emerge.
“I would suggest that they set up one of the field hospitals we have heard about here [in Montego Bay], to provide additional capacity for the west and to support the existing situation at the CRH,” said Henry, while speaking at Friday’s