Outsourcing can boost job creation, says Kerr-Jarrett
Published:Friday | January 28, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Nadisha Hunter, Gleaner Writer
Well-known land developer Mark Kerr-Jarrett is optimistic that the information, communication technology and business processes outsourcing (ICT/BPO) industry is one of the most promising sectors for spurring job creation and development in the Jamaican economy.
Addressing receptive Rotarians during a luncheon at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston yesterday, Kerr-Jarrett, managing director of Barnett Limited, said the ICT/BPO sector was the lowest hanging fruit with the greatest potential to create new, well-paying jobs with the least amount of capital in the shortest possible time.
"With growth and job creation, we will create the new wealth that will generate the new taxes with which we will be able to fund the right-sized functions of government and pay off our debts," he declared.
Kerr-Jarrett called for strong support from the Government in making funding available to make the industry a reality.
"In order for this industry to become established and significantly contribute to growth and job creation, we need financing at rates and terms that are globally competitive, facilitatory and with the flexibility to allow the investors to carry inventory without being jeopardised and/or bankrupted," he argued. "And for this, we must have the active support and participation of the Government of Jamaica."
Thriving industry
Kerr-Jarrett said that while practical offers on loans - to carry out the plans for what would be a thriving industry - must carry interest rates below five per cent with 15- to 20-year terms, the best currently on offer is six per cent for seven years.
"A possible option for finance is for the JPS (Jamaica Public Service) grid to be unbundled into a separate corporate entity and list it on the JSE (Jamaica Stock Exchange). The Government could then sell the licences to investors interested in power generation. The funds acquired from selling the power-generation licences could then be made available to developers at concessionary terms."
Kerr-Jarrett is also suggesting that Government downsize the civil service and rotate it into the ICT industry to fill the immediate needs of the limited human resources to carry on the industry.
In boasting about the possibility of the industry building the economy, Kerr-Jarrett made a comparison with the tourism sector, which he said has been successful, by showing figures that would put the ICT/BPO industry emerging as the better investment.
Kerr-Jarrett declared that to create 2,000 new jobs in tourism requires from 45 to 60 acres of prime oceanfront real estate, at least US$150 million of investment and at least 18 to 24 months' construction time. But to create 2,000 new jobs in the ICT/BPO sector requires 10 acres of commercial real estate, US$20 to $30 million in investment and nine to 12 months' construction time. He noted that employees in this area would earn up to two times that of the average employee in the tourism sector.
"Tourism has done very well and (Tourism) Minister Edmund Bartlett has done a great job, but tourism can't employ all our people and the beauty about the ICT/BPO operations is the fact that it is not seasonal. It is counter-recessionary, so the worse things get abroad, the deeper they drive their roots here because they have to deliver the goods and services at a more affordable price," he said.