Jamaican BPO sector plays significant role in economy, says PM

PRIME MINISTER Andrew Holness is touting the importance of appreciating the value of the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector to the Jamaican economy.

“We should not seek to in any way depreciate the value of the BPO sector. It is a very important sector for the Jamaican economy,” cited Holness in his address at yesterday’s launch of the Jamaica Extended Support Services (JESS) operations at KPMG’s Harbour Street, downtown Kingston, offices.

The new state-of-the-art shared services facility will initially seat 175 employees, with plans to increase to approximately 250, to expand its delivery of market development, finance and accounting, and human resource services to KPMG LLP in the United States.

Strengthening his point, Holness said that his administration has been making significant investments in the growing presence of the BPO sector.

He said that more than 30,000 people are employed directly in the sector, but noted that there is potential to do much more.

However, despite the strong growth numbers for that industry, Holness said there is fear among some stakeholders that the sector could slow because of a lack of staffing.

“My view is that it (growth numbers) could be 10 times that. But the sector has reached almost a frontier now, and it is the Government of Jamaica which has to increase its investment in the training of more people,” Holness said.

“Some stakeholders in the BPO sector say that is their main complaint and that they are seeing in the very near future that the limit on growth could be the availability of staffing of their operations. So we are not taking that for granted.”

He said that the Government has started to put in place various programmes to ensure that the sector remains buoyant, while creating well-paid jobs.

“So we have started now with the HOPE Programme, which is the first level of government intervention to get our young people who have left school but are not in employment, the unattached, to get them into a stream of work, engagement of apprenticeship so that they can be ready to take up the jobs in the BPO sector,” stated Holness.

RUDOLPH BROWN/PHOTOGRAPHER Prime Minister Andrew Holness (second right) chats with (from left) Joseph Arena, firm controller of KPMG LLP; Donald Barnett, partner, outsourcing of KPMG in Jamaica; and R. Tarun Handa, managing partner of KPMG in Jamaica. The occasion was the launch of KPMG’s new nearshore shared services facility, Jamaica Extended Support Services, in downtown Kingston yesterday.