MONTEGO BAY, St James — More and more school leavers in St James are gaining much-needed employment in the rapidly growing business process outsourcing (BPO) industry which now provides more than 10,000 jobs in Montego Bay, and which has established itself as the hub for the IT sector in Jamaica.

“The primary benefit that the country derives from this industry would be jobs. The industry has created some 14,000 jobs and the Montego Bay Freezone has over 7,000 of those jobs. In Montego Bay generally, outside the walls of the Freezone, there are about another 3,000 jobs,” Gloria Henry, operations manager of the Montego Bay Free Zone, told the Jamaica Observer.

“So we would say that Montego Bay is the hub, the nucleus of this industry, supporting some over- 10,000 jobs directly because there are a lot of other jobs that are indirectly connected as well.”

In fact, only tourism now enjoys a better employment record in Montego Bay than the IT sector which raked in US$122 million in foreign exchange earnings inside the Montego Bay Freezone last year.

“Last year the sector made somewhere in the range of almost US$122 million in foreign exchange earning. That’s just within the Freezone; the country itself is earning about US$300 million,” Henry noted.

The Port Authority Freezone accounts for about 60 per cent of workers in the BPO and provides accommodation for 200 top global operators.

President of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry Nathan Robb is elated at the high level of employment generated by the BPO sector, which is also providing economic spin-offs to other areas, such as transportation in the city.

“The BPO sector is very important. In the last two years it has grown tremendously. In fact, it does offer significant sources of employment and in turn, spin-offs that has come from people who are employed. I want to say the spin-offs include benefits to ordinary people. So that, for example, the transport operators who transport them,” Robb noted.

“I am from the downtown area of Montego Bay and there is a tremendous impact of the BPO — people coming off and going through town. It is a direct contribution to the economy, whether it be the transport or purchasing items from the trade in town and around town it does in fact impact significantly.”

Meanwhile, Director General of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) Colin Bullock, who also acknowledged that the BPO sector is a huge source of employment in Montego Bay, expressed that the sector is poised for more growth.

“It is a significant employer in the Montego Bay area and with the planned expansion of Barnett Tech Park, I don’t think we have actually got to the limit of what can happen in terms of BPO. I think there is more potential there. I think there is greater potential for Montego Bay in terms of BPO,” Bullock told the Sunday Observer.

Meanwhile, Henry also pointed out that the area of telecommunications also benefits from the burgeoning IT industry. Two other telecommunication giants, Flow and Digicel, have joined LIME in the Freezone.

“Telecommunications is one of the chief supporting infrastructure for the development and growth of the sector. We have seen tremendous development in the type of infrastructure that supports the industry. We have seen new players coming on stream: we have had Columbus, which is Flow, we have had Digicel in recent times in 2012 undertaking a major project to install underground fibre-optic high-speed broadband support infrastructure to support this industry,” Henry said.

“So now Jamaica has a very robust and resilient telecommunication infrastructure that supports the growth and effectiveness of this industry.”

She further noted that as a result of the expansion in the BPO sector, the construction industry is also profiting.

“From time to time we have converted a number of spaces that were originally designed for garment manufacturing. We have retrofitted to accommodate expansion of the business processing industry association,” noted the operations manager for the Montego Bay Free Zone.

Acknowledging that the Montego Bay Freezone works closely with tertiary students in Montego Bay, Henry also highlighted the spin-offs that are generated from the BPO sector to areas of hospitality and food.

“There are other areas that are benefiting such as restaurants, security, restaurant and food services, security and tourism; many of the expatriates that come down to work at these (call) centres, they stay at hotels. Many of our clients and their clients stay at these hotels,” Henry noted.

“There are complimentary industry there are synergies that we benefit from as an outsourcing sector that spins off from tourism and vice versa.”

Meanwhile, CEO for Global Outsourcing in the Montego Bay Freezone Davon Crump is appealing to the Government to provide incentives for local investors in the IT sector.

“There needs to be a push for some incentives for this sector for local investors. Not many local investors get the opportunity that they can grow and expand. Our (local investors) foreign exchange stays right here in Jamaica. It is not sent back out of the country. That is something that is very essential. Other foreign investors’ surplus is sent back out of the country,” Crump argued.