Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
Government is to make a renewed push to promote Jamaica as a destination for outsourcing information technology (IT) businesses as part of an updated strategy for the sector, says Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Information, Technology, Energy and Commerce.
Covering the years 2007-2012, the strategy includes an update to the Telecommunications Act of 2000 which made the liberalisation of the sector possible.
The new act will also create a single regulator for the industry, merging the telecommunications regulatory portfolio held by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) with the Spectrum Management Authority (SMA) and the Broadcasting Commission.
Awaiting approval
Mr. Paulwell said the strategy should be approved by Cabinet this month and the legislation passed by Parliament mid-2007.
"We have the opportunity to again launch a massive promotion effort to attract outsourcing business from the United States and elsewhere into Jamaica now that we have cheaper broadband, more reliable technology infrastructure and training being done through the e-Learning project and HEART/NTA," he said.
He acknowledged that the previous push to establish call centres business in Jamaica, including a failure to create a predicted 40,000 jobs in the sector, had been overoptimistic. This included the failed NetServ venture which cost Government $180 million.
"Not everything was in place. The human resources, physical infrastructure and the price of the telecommunications services weren't really where they ought to have been, so the timeframe that we had set was too aggressive but we believe that the potential is now there," he said.
A realistic possibility
However, the Technology Minister contended that the growth of the IT sector, together with increased provision of office space by the private sector, made it a realistic possibility.
The minister said this time around it would be the private sector and not Government making the investment.
He added that the local private sector should take more interest in e-business after the passing of the e-Transactions Act this week.
ross.sheil@gleanerjm.com
