Kirk LaughlinA delegation of North American BPO executives toured Georgetown, Guyana last week, exploring business opportunities in sourcing, customer care, and IT services as the country continues to generate acclaim from knowledge services investors.
“This type of activity is very powerful and we’re proud to be a part of it,” said Mr. Dominic Gaskin, Minister of Business, from the Government of Guyana, who participated in portions of the mission, including an introductory forum
Organized by Nearshore Americas, the CX Guyana program was designed to examine the country’s readiness in offering global services, particularly call center service.
“I interacted with several delegates. They all seemed to have been impressed with what they saw here. I am sure, they will come back to Guyana with a plan to set up business operations,” said Darren Ramdial, Managing Director of NPI Communications Inc, a Guyana-based BPO service provider.
Delegates on the mission included large financial and credit card organizations, internet service providers, and supply chain and logistics professionals.
Among the places the delegation visited was Qualfon’s 10-acre campus in capital Georgetown and the BPO facility of Emerge BPO.
Qualfon unveiled another contact center facility last week, and expects to reach nearly 2,500 agents in Guyana by year’s end.
The delegation also met with top government officials, including GoInvest’s CEO Owen Verway, and Perry L. Holloway, U.S. ambassador to Guyana.
“Site visits are the single best way for a company to understand what an outsourcer can do,” said Adrian Collins, CEO of Emerge BPO, adding that all his employees in the country are Guyanese.
“As I was on the other side of the table for many years, I understand the importance of that site visit when I was making decisions regarding which provider our company would work with.”
Qualfon has long enjoyed a greater presence in Guyana, making the most of the skilled human resources in the country. But foreign firms began to doubt the easy availability of human talent when even Teleperformance, one of the world’s largest voice-based BPO service providers, expanded to the Caribbean country two years ago with a call center in Georgetown.
“This country has an enormous number of skilled workers. Many of them are eagerly looking for jobs. We have good universities teaching computer science, and English is widely spoken here,” Ramdial added.
Some of the country’s best-known educational institutes include the University of Guyana, the School of Nations, the Royal Academy, the Business School of Georgetown, and the Guyana Technical Institute.
The tour was capped off by a visit to the El Dorado Rum operation, where delegates got to sample several varieties of rum produced at the award-winning distillery. Some equipment at the distillery dates back over 100 years, providing the rum-makers with a taste that is nearly impossible to duplicate.
This is not the first trade mission organised by Nearshore Americas, having previously facilitated similar tours to Guadalajara and Mexico City, San Jose, Costa Rica, and San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
For images and more information, check out our Facebook photo album of CX Guyana.
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