E-Paper
South Africa may hit India's BPO biz
South Africa may get an edge over India in call centre industry due to stability of its communication network.
An initiative supported by the national and provincial governments in South Africa to lure call centres of multinationals to this coastal city could impact on India's huge role in this field.
Marc Spendlove, marketing director of one of the largest call centre companies in Cape Town, The Dialogue Group, said firms were showing a keen interest in the fast developing call centre industry in South Africa.
Spendlove said one of the main reasons that could see South Africa getting an edge over India was the stability of the communication network in South Africa.
He said India sometimes had communication breakdowns that left multinationals with a concern over downtime.
Supported by the Western Cape provincial government as well as the national ministry of trade of industry, the call centre industry in Cape Town is expected to grow exponentially with the number of jobs created expected to increase to more than 1,000 within the next three months from just 60 two years ago.
The ministry earlier visited India and also suggested co-operative efforts between the two countries.
The South African government hopes to create 100,000 new jobs linked to the call centre industry over the next three years.
During a presentation by the ministry late last year, some multinationals said they were also looking at the possibility of having a backup service in South Africa for services already running in India.
Sources within the industry said the growing deregulation of the telecommunications industry in South Africa could also help in the growth of the call centre industry.
Tata Africa, a subsidiary of the Indian company, is expected to become a major role player in the second network operator, which will challenge the monopoly of former state telecommunications operator Telkom.
