The Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica (BPIAJ) has come out in public support of the recent aquisition of Flow by LIME/Cable and Wireless, and says that it has been in support of the move from day one.

“A monopoly is a thing of the past,” said Yoni Epstein, president of the BPIAJ and chief executive of itel-BPO Solutions, in the news release. “Jamaica and the telecoms industry are competing globally. The merger gives CWC/Flow an edge as a service provider that can add the greatest value to its customers in the region, but it doesn’t eradicate competition”

“We were assured that the current provisions will still be in place such as redundancy, fair pricing and business continuity; upon this basis we supported the merger from day one,” he said. Those assurances were received from the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining as well as the CWC/Flow team, the release said.

The release stated that the “BPIAJ from the onset of the negotiations had reached out to the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining and the telecoms firms highlighting in brief the concerns of our membership regarding the merger; the fear of no redundancy, business continuity and a possible monopoly were the issues at hand.

The announcement of support comes after the recent statement by Ron McKay, president of the American Chamber of Commerce and a player in the BPO industry as co-founder of Ads Global, that the merger of the two telecoms companies may deter international investors looking to enter the local business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.

“There are plenty of places around the world that you can open up a call centre operation, they don’t have to come here,” McKay told the Business Observer. “A monopoly is the last thing we need right now overall.”

But according to Gloria Henry, vice president of the Montego Bay Free Zone Company, “there must be some misunderstanding given the engagement and discussion that have been held with MSTEM and the BPO operators. Subsequent to that, representatives from Flow and LIME met with the BPO operators to assure them that the rates they benefited from when there were two separate companies would not be jeopardised, and that the quality of service and infrastructure will be sustained”.

The Association currently has 33 members. The BPO industry accounts for approximately 17,000 employees and generates revenue over US$400m.