(From left, standing) Aditya Bajoria of Vishnu Solutions; Kirk Kennedy, executive director of investment promotion at Jamaica Trade and Invest (JTI) and Prasad Garapati, chairman of Innocorp Limited and also a vice chairman of the Indian Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC India) greet Andrew Fazio, Flow director of commercial sales, at a forum for representatives of the Jamaican and Indian Information Communication Telecommunication sectors, held yesterday at the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston yesterday. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

Jamaica's Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector might soon receive a major boost from Indian investors who are visiting the island to assess the feasibility of projects including the establishment of a technology park and an offshore call centre.

Hosted by Jamaica Trade and Invest (JTI), the Indian delegation met yesterday with representatives of the local ICT sector during a forum at the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston. Members of the delegation said that they were enticed by Jamaica's growing reputation for offshore call centres boosted by the island's much promoted proximity and cultural affinity with the United States.

JTI is optimistic that Jamaica could also learn from the example of India, which has become a world leader in ICT outsourcing and software development. JTI manager of knowledge services Janine Josephs said that the local ICT sector was "floundering" in the field of software development. Last week Jamaica Computer Society (JCS) president Nigel Henry complained that more job opportunities were needed for software programmers.

"We have nothing to lose from this in terms of competition and have everything to learn from them," Josephs told the Business Observer at the function. "We need a certain amount of technology transfer and people with project management experience. We have people who leave universities with a kind of plan but without anybody with real world experience and those that have tend to have migrated elsewhere because they don't see the opportunities."

Anil Madhok, chief executive officer of C3IT Software Solutions, said that he was interested in establishing an offshore centre in Jamaica to be located close to tertiary education institutions to better source employees whom he would seek to train under an internship programme.

"What we do in India is that in the last six months of college we have them in as interns and train them because what they are taught there and what is required in the industry, there is a big gap. So what we would do is pick them up and get them up to speed," said Madhok.

Prasad Garapati, chairman of Innocorp Limited and also a vice chairman of the Indian Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC India), has begun discussions with JTI president Robert Gregory about building a tech park which will be constructed along college campus lines complete with residential blocks, similar to existing facilities in India.

"One example that we look at is Dubai, which has become the entire hub for the Middle East and North Africa, and equally in my vision we think that Jamaica can provide that for India because of its location with North and South America," said Garapati who is being shown potential sites for the venture by JTI during his visit.

Meanwhile, Aditya Bajoria of Vishnu Solutions said that he was interested in establishing a call centre in Jamaica but also in exploring partnership with existing local operations.

"We are looking for proposals. We don't have anything fixed in mind but we are definitely looking for collaborations in Jamaica because of the advantages that if offers. We would like to start something in two or three years," said Bajoria.

However, the interested investors will not be the first from the Indian ICT industry to come to Jamaica. Originally from Bangalore, dubbed the 'Silicon Valley of India', Sanjeev Kumar, who runs Innovative Solutions Learning Systems (ISALS) with his wife, moved here 10 years ago. Based at the University of Technology (UTech) business incubator the Technology Innovation Centre (TIC), ISALS specialises in web-based development applications for health and education including an islandwide database of medical records commissioned by the National Health Fund (NHF).

"We can provide analyst and consultancy work from Jamaica and manage that end of a project here and the development work can be done in India. So it's a win-win situation and it would give them an advantage again because of our location and similar culture with the US," said Kumar.

India could also provides a market for local ICT goods and services. Andrew Simpson, chief executive of locally-based SymSure Limited, has already recruited an agent there to market his SymSure Monitor risk management framework and is optimistic of securing sales by the end of 2008.

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