Govt boosts BPO sector
THE biggest advantage that Fiji has is that we speak English in a neutral accent which is a huge gain compared to the rest of the world and we need to capitalise on that.
The Minister for Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport, Faiyaz Koya made these comments as he visited the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Industries active members Pacific Centrecom (Fiji) Limited, Greymouse and Packleader Pacific recently.
These members are involved in areas such as Voice Technology, Call Centre Operations, Back Office Operations, Airline Reservations, Worldwide Freight Shipping, Building and Infrastructure, Government, Insurance, Banking & Finance, Debt Collection, Virtual Human Resource and Telecommunication.
“This is an area the Government wants to grow and therefore it is crucial to get the thoughts of relevant stakeholders and staff involved,” he said.
In highlighting the importance of the industry, Minister Koya said Fiji has a huge young population base which can do a lot of good in this sector.
“There are a lot of young people employed here and the amazing part is that not all of them are university graduates,” he said.
“It is important to know what the Government can do in regards to the BPO sector and their shortcomings and with the national budget consultation coming up they can present ideas they may have,” he added.
“Fiji needs to diversify into different industries and for us to stop depending largely on tourism. Of course, we want tourism to return and grow but we must also grow other industries and this is one of them.”
Minister Koya adds that industries like this don’t necessarily have to be Suva centric and could be located in Ba or Lautoka, especially when there has been a lot of work going on in respect to the special economic zone.
Pacific Centrecom (Fiji) Limited General Manager, Carol Watkins said the company “delivers a centre of excellence in outsourcing services globally which exceed client expectations”.
Centrecom has three main centres of excellence in Europe, Fiji and Australia with representation in another five countries – Jordan, Libya, Morocco, the United States of America and New Zealand servicing a global customer base.