BPO Sector Can Transform Employment Landscape – Dr. Phillips

Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr. the Hon.  Peter Philips said the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) represents a fundamental opportunity to transform the country’s employment landscape over a relatively short time period.

He noted that the industry has been on a steady growth path, and the Government has developed a five-year strategic plan for the sector, which will see thousands of Jamaicans gaining meaningful employment.

The strategic plan for the sector is expected to deliver some 15,000 new jobs over the next five years.

Minister Phillips, who was addressing the Victoria Mutual Building Society’s (VMBS) inaugural economic forum held on Wednesday, August 12, at the Terra Nova Hotel, said the critical value of the BPO sector is that it can employ labour at all levels and experiences.

“Persons with advanced degrees through to your basic high school leaver…have an opportunity there,” he pointed out.

Minister Philips welcomed a trend where BPO investors are relying less on loan funds from the state to finance their operations and are seeking their own private funding.

“It is a trend to be encouraged, which does not relieve the state of obligations to continue to develop the appropriate taxation regimes that are competitive globally,” he said.

Turning to the public sector wage deal that has been signed to by most of the trade unions representing the workers, Minister Phillip said despite the fact that the Government will have to adjust the national budget, to accommodate the additional expenditure, the maturity of the unions and the workers should not go unnoticed.

“I commend the trade union leadership and the public sector workers for a farsightedness in recognising the linkage between their own personal circumstances, and the prospects for the country,” he said.

He noted that the workers knew that unreasonable requests could have eroded the gains already made under the Economic Reform Programme (ERP).