MONTEGO BAY, St James — President of the Global Services Association of Jamaica (GSAJ) Gloria Henry is happy with Government’s decision to allow players in the sector to work from home due to the novel coronavirus threat.

“We welcome the Government’s support to allow computers to leave the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) duty-free to facilitate [the] work-at-home initiative by different companies in the sector. This will allow, of course, for less employees to be on the road to be in the contact centres, and will provide greater levels of safety for the workers from a COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) risk perspective,” Henry told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke told Parliament on Tuesday that, under normal circumstances, Customs requires business process outsourcing (BPO) firms to keep the equipment used in their operations at their place of business.

He told the Lower House, however: “We will waive this requirement for a specific period to facilitate working from home and for business continuity.”

The GSAJ, formerly known as the Business Process Industry Association of Jamaica, recently asked the Government to grant permission for companies in the sector to move equipment out of the SEZ to facilitate work in an effort to minimise a possible spread of the novel coronavirus.

Henry told the Observer that at least 10,000 people employed in the sector were being processed to work from home.

“… I am not sure how many of that amount will be approved, but I am expecting that once the approvals are completed then you will start to see persons working from home.”

The processing of the workers, she explained, includes: “Security concerns, telecommunications capabilities, and even the very security of the workers; essentially, we have to whitelist the employees to make sure that we preserve the integrity of the data and everything.”

Meanwhile, Henry noted that, so far, the sector has not seen any fallout due to COVID-19.

“We have not seen any fallout yet, but it is still early days. Our focus right now is on business continuity, because we expect that the sector will weather the storm, as we have in many instances before. We are hoping that our resilience and our fortitude and the measures that have been implemented by the Government, which we think are excellent measures, are very commendable,” said Henry.

Over the years, the sector, which currently employs roughly 38,000 people, has seen phenomenal growth.

In fact, the industry has grown five times the size it was in 2007 and three times the size it was in 2010, in St James alone.

Overall, the global services sector has recorded more than six per cent growth over 2018.

In Freeport, St James, there are currently more than 12,000 people employed in the sector.

In January, Mayor of Montego Bay Homer Davis, speaking at the sector’s quarterly breakfast forum, predicted that, over the next five years, the resort city will be in need of an additional 20,000 to 25,000 workers to fill the capacity in the global services sector and tourism industry.