Global Business Service is sector still key in job creation

2021-04-14 11:34:00

Business Process Enabling South Africa (BPESA) in partnership with Trade & Investment KwaZulu-Natal and Invest Durban hosted a successful business engagement to cement partnerships between the call centres businesses with provincial and national government.  This session also afforded the industry CEOs an opportunity to engage with provincial leadership and to also come up with resolutions on targeted activities and interventions for taking the sector forward.

This engagement was also significant in that South Africa was named the Most favoured Offshore CX Delivery Location for 2021 in the Annual Front Office BPO Omnibus Survey.  This is in a sector that is rapidly expanding locally and exporting call-centre related services to other parts of the world. The business services sector includes call centres, technical support, back and front office services.  The companies mostly multinationals have seen exceptional growth in recent years and have been a major contributor to job creation for young South Africans.
In his opening remarks, the Mayor of eThekwini Municipality Cllr Kaunda said “While COVID-19 has had a devastating impact in both our economy and in the lives our people, we remain committed to creating a conducive environment for business to thrive. Post COVID-19 we want the Global Business Services sector to play a central role in the economic recovery of the province.”

Neville Matjie, Chief Executive Officer of Trade & Investment KwaZulu-Natal assured the audience that the province is rolling out a red carpet for all investors including those in the call centre industry. “The Global Business Services sector provides critical services to domestic and global companies and creates employment opportunities to job seekers in the province; therefore, it needs to remain on the agenda when we talk about economic recovery and investment attraction. We have a solid value proposition as a province as such, a partnership with the industry will realise the creation of more jobs and economic spin-off for the sector.” Said Matjie.

This was supported by Mr Robin Hoekstra, CEO of Outworx and BPESA KZN Chairman who emphasized on the confidence and trust that the global buyers and enterprise executives have in South Africa. “Over the recent years, KZN has developed a reputation as an internationally recognized GBS Powerhouse. We have fast emerged as an acknowledged frontline CX-centric sales and lifecycle management hub, offering exceptional business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) frontline BPO talent that services local and global markets. As a result, KZN is now home to approximately 13% of South Africa’s overall Global Business Services.” Said Hoekstra.

Speaking on behalf of the Provincial Government, the MEC for Economic Development Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Hon. Ravi Pillay highlighted government’s commitment support for this sector despite the dire impact of COVID-19. “During the height of Covid-19, we ensured that call centres supporting local and global essential services continued to operate. This was a true show of our commitment towards the industry, and we believe this contributed to its resilience. During the recovery period and beyond we will continue supporting the business process outsourcing industry.” Said Pillay.

The Global Business Services Investor Conference was last held in Durban in November 2019, to showcase South Africa and KZN which has again been awarded to Durban for 2021.  It was estimated by BPESA that the province has the real opportunity to attract an additional five thousand new jobs by the end of 2021.
                                                                                                                                                                                            
ENDS.
Contact Person: Ms Angel (Mkhethie) Sibisi
Cell: 076 062 3779/ 0764686139
Email: angel@tikzn.co.za