How Jamaica wooed Sutherland's 700-worker outsourcing centre
What's the deal? Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has welcomed US-based Sutherland Global Services to Jamaica, calling its new business process outsourcing (BPO) operation "a bold declaration that the country is ready for business on a global scale." The company inaugurated its centre on December 4 at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), where it had begun operating in November 2012.
What does the company do? Sutherland is a global outsourcing firm that employs over 30,000 professionals worldwide, with clients including Deutsche Bank. Its Jamaican centre trains students in call centre operations, program management, and client engagement.
Why Jamaica? The centre employs more than 700 UWI students through the university's work/study programme, built around Sutherland's "Earn Where You Learn" model. Simpson Miller said the model's focus on people aligned with her administration's priority of human capital development.
What's the endgame? The investment is a first step toward the government's vision of a regional hub for knowledge services. Jamaica Promotions Corporation president Diane Edwards said the agency has a mandate to double the BPO sector by 2016, with firms like Sutherland key to generating jobs for young people.
The signal: The deal captured Jamaica's early bet on outsourcing as an engine for jobs and foreign investment. Industry and investment minister Anthony Hylton said it showed the island was "ready to embrace the global outsourcing industry." Whether that ambition holds remains the open question as the sector matures.
Read more: jis.gov.jm
Image credit: Sutherland
