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Proposals from Dave Kissoondoyal following meeting with Minister of IT and
Telecommunications on 8th January 2004
There is no disputing the statement that call centre has had a tremendous
impact on the conduct of business in the world today. Call centres for
selling goods and services, as well as call centres for providing customer
care, are a familiar part of the business life of virtually every person
in the developed countries, and increasingly in the rest of the world. The
call centre industry is a huge segment of the economy by any standard.
Much is made, particularly by politicians, of call centres ability to
generate employment and businesses. However, it is not enough to rely on
land, TAX incentives and an efficient telecommunications infrastructure.
While land and operating costs can be low, staff resource problems can
soon wipe out the cost benefits of a location, like Mauritius. The recent
experience, Infosys had can confirm the same.
Despite technology and infrastructure, people still represent the greatest
variable and have the most potential to improve business performance.
Training, and retraining, skilled staff is paramount. Training, education
levels, language diversity and skills, incentives and infrastructure are
all part of the mix if Mauritius wishes to attract the call centres
business.
In line with the above The Call Centre Management Association (CCMA) in
the UK believes that “the key to providing quality employment lies in
promoting managerial excellence and is dedicated to fostering the
development of a new breed of call centre professionals - individuals with
vision, expertise, and the commitment necessary to enable their respective
organisations to thrive in an era of fast changing, networked economies,
global competition and heightened customer expectations”.
Experts in India stress that “Introducing international standards in call
centre training is therefore imperative to ensure that the industry does
not go the medical transcription way. International certifications, CRM
tools and specialised help desk training are needed to further enhance the
skill sets.
The future of the industry evidently depends on how well trained are its
professionals in providing world-class services.
The government needs to promote international quality training to
encourage the industry. Premium call centres should have domain focus to
stay ahead of the curve as they would need people from different
backgrounds like finance and technology. The help desk segment can
undoubtedly attract the right talent by providing an attractive career
path, as help desk and contact centres are regarded as one of the fastest
growing industries worldwide. Qualified professionals consequently have
the option to look at it as a separate career option.
International certifications from STI Knowledge, a leading provider of
call centre training in the US (capturing 45 percent of the Fortune 500
market) have recently been introduced in India. STI offers international
certifications following a Web-based exam after completion of the course.
The certifications are Help Desk 2000, Call Centre 2000 and Knowledge 2000
for all the three tiers that are the agents, managers and director.
Knowledge 2000 will take to the next level by converting all the data into
a Knowledge Management system. Introductions of these certifications will
not only enable call centres to attract a global clientele, but it will
also help in retention of the professionals”
My proposals are simple as that:
1.
Enhance the Education standard in Mauritius by allowing the students to
complete their secondary Schooling up to the HND (Higher National Diploma)
level. This is easy now, since the Education Reforms in Mauritius allows
specific schools like Royal College, QEC etc to provide post O-level
schooling for 2 years to complete the A-Levels. So the students will
attend those schools for 4 years instead of 2 and leave with a HND
Diploma.
2. The
HND mentioned above deals with subjects related to Information Technology
and Call centre activities
• Customer
care: including database marketing, customer analytics,
telesales/telemarketing, inbound call centre, web sales and marketing,
sales and marketing administration.
• Finance:
including billing services, accounting transactions, tax consulting and
compliance, risk management, financial reporting, financial analysis.
• Human
Resources: including benefits administration, education and training,
recruiting and staffing, payroll services, hiring-administration, records
management.
• Payment
services: credit/debit card services, cheque processing, and transaction
processing
•
Administration: including tax processing, claims processing, asset
management, document management, transcription and translation.
• Content
development: including engineering, design, animation, network consultancy
and management, biotech research.
3. The
HND is the pathway to get International
certifications. The Higher National Diploma has to be customised by the
help of local tutors, universities representatives and International
training Agencies.
4. At the
business level, the Government has to encourage the setting up of training
Academia in each Call Centre. Tax incentive has to be provided for setting
up of the same together with a FULL refund in the costs incurred in
training both in-house and external agents.
5.
Setting up of a professional Organisation related to the Call centre
business. All employees in this specific business has to adhere to the
professional organisation, whereby they pay a token fee as membership,
which has to be deductible from the Income Tax. The Professional
Organisation maintains a database of all members as well as those looking
for jobs in the Call centre business. This organisation provides list of
job seekers with their profiles to prospective employers.
6. At the
strategy level, there should be abolition of betting tax for telephone and
Internet based betting. This will encourage foreign investors come to
Mauritius and take advantage of the same. Mauritius will be cited one of
the main competitor for the Caribbean islands. Many international Sports
bookies will be set up here and lots of job will be created. This will be
a very popular decision of the Government as this will bring job creation
7.
Promotion of Mauritius as an Online Gaming and hosting destination. Please
see the fax I addressed to the Minister of IT and Telecoms on 26th
February 2003
_________________________________________________________________________
Fax to Hon Minister of IT &
Telecoms 26th February 2003 (ICT)
Hon Pradeep Jeeha
Minister of Information Technology and Telecommunications
9th
Floor
Air Mauritius Centre
John Kennedy Street
Port Louis
Date: 26th February 2003
Dear Honourable Minister,
Further to the meeting held in the Conference Room of your Ministry on 25th
February 2003 at 1400 hours the following were noted
Only 25 % of the Office Space is reserved in the Cyber Tower, which is due
to be completed in December 2003.
I
expressed my views on promoting Mauritius as a hosting destination for
online gambling and Casinos, which is the biggest revenue generating
industry on the Internet.
The following document will justify the above-mentioned views and it will
be my contribution to the Working Committee on the preparation for SECA
2003.
Honourable Minister, I am just doing my duty of a Mauritian as I am
totally for the concept of the Cyber Island and fully confidant that the
ICT sector will boost the economy of Mauritius.
I hope that you will consider the points mentioned in the document as I
think, it will be a way to fill the remaining 75 % of the Cyber Tower.
Thanking you in anticipation,
Yours Sincerely
Dave Kissoondoyal, ACMI
Group Information Technology and Telecommunications Director
Bowman International Sports Ltd
Proposal to make Mauritius a hosting destination for offshore Online
Gambling and Betting.
Online gambling operations have sprouted in cyberspace. “Virtual” or
“cyber” casinos have boomed over the last several years into a very
lucrative enterprise. Online gambling revenues are expected to exceed $15
billion by the year 2005. This dramatic increase may be attributed to
several factors, including increased Internet access, improvements in
technology which facilitate online betting, increased public confidence
with online financial transactions, and national licensing of Internet
gambling operations by several countries. Online gambling ranges from
real-time casino-style gambling, to pari-mutuel betting, to sports
wagering, to lotteries. Placing a bet in cyberspace eliminates travel
costs to casinos or other wagering establishments, protects a bettor’s
privacy and anonymity, and currently provides those who wish to skirt
state restrictions on gambling a means by which to do so. On-line wagering
promises to revolutionize the way people gamble because it opens up the
possibility of immediate, individual, 24-hour access to the full range of
gambling in every home.”
Many Governments including those of Costa Rica and the Caribbean Islands
do provide the incentives for online gambling business to operate. In
Costa Rica itself there are about 150 betting centres or "sportsbooks" at
which an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 young people are employed, many of
them university students who make 4-8 dollars per hour.
There has been a drastic change that the Costa Rican Government is
bringing which Mauritius can take advantage of. The following articles
speak by themselves:
More
Taxes For Costa Rican On-Line Gaming Operators
by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, New York
13 February 2003
Costa Rica's government has continued its efforts to extract some revenue
from its booming gambling industry, with the news that the economy
ministry will establish a registry of online gambling companies, and will
charge each one between 10m and 24m Colons (US$26,000 to $63,000)
according to the number of persons employed.
The initiative follows congressional legislation that established taxes
targeted at gaming companies. Last December, provisions to tax casinos and
online betting operators were approved in the National Assembly by a
margin of 45 to 5.
Slot machine operators had protested that plans to tax them between US$250
and $300 per slot machine, per month would drive smaller operators out of
business, and in the event the rate per machine was reduced to US$20.
Computer terminals used to place bets were to have been charged US$1,000
per month, but this was revised down to $500.
It remains to be seen whether the on-line gambling operators will accept
what seems to be a fairly heavy impost, or whether they will defect en
masse for friendlier shores, or just take avoiding action by outsourcing
labour-intensive work to other jurisdictions
http://www.worldmarketsanalysis.com/wma_sample_pages/site_pages/WMRASampleDailyAnalysis.html
Latin America and Caribbean
Costa Rica: New Taxes Could Threaten Costa Rica's Online Gambling
Operations - (Mon 20 Jan 2003)
Internet gambling sites began establishing themselves in Costa Rica in
1996 in order to take advantage of vague legislation on gaming, cheap
labour and English-speaking workers. However, with the government
threatening to impose new fees or taxes on the industry, the boom days for
internet gambling websites could be over. Many gambling operators have
already said that they will simply move on to the next gambling-friendly
haven, singling out Panama and Belize, which are offering buildings, lax
tax requirements and maybe even a break on telephone fees, as
possibilities as sites for their operations. Both countries need to create
jobs. Gambling operators have in the past bailed out quickly from
countries when it seems that they are no longer welcome. For example, the
imposition of new taxes in Antigua on the industry in the mid-1990s caused
the operators to quickly leave the island. Costa Rica is clearly unhappy
that the internet sports betting operations, which are disguised as data
processing centres, pay no licensing fees and few taxes. It is also
concerned by the industry's reputation for money laundering. However, the
industry provides 10,000 to 15,000 well-paid jobs, so a final decision on
the direction of government policy will be difficult to make. In the
meantime, internet gambling operators may see increased regulation as
inevitable. If so, they will already be planning their next move.
IF MAURITIUS CAN PROVIDE THE RIGHT ALTERNATIVE TO THEM, I AM SURE THE
BOOKMAKERS WILL HAVE NO HESITATION COMING TO MAURITIUS.
Control and Regulation
Despite all the promises and ambitions this industry seems to offer, there
are numerous con artists, scam operators and disreputable people in this
industry (some with criminal records). It would be short sighted to think
that everyone in this business is honest. Some firms claiming to be the
most reputable and honourable in terms of casinos and business are in fact
out to rip everyone off. Despite their glowing and trusting appearance,
they are the opposite in every way. Some online betting companies do not
abide by agreements in the form of contracts they sign.
Therefore the appropriate control has to be put in place by the Government
before issuing any licenses. Remember, there is close relationship with
the financial offshore business and the offshore online gaming business.
Since the appropriate agency on the offshore financial side is doing
pretty well, I am confident that this Government, which is really
determined to combat fraud and corruption, will have the necessary control
in place for the offshore online gaming industry.
This industry provides its own means of accessing the players itself.
Major Wager
(http://www.majorwager.com
) is a site which gamblers voice their satisfaction and dissatisfaction
with various casinos. It is an extremely popular site, which gamblers read
regularly. The Casino Affiliate Programs'
Scam Alert (http://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com/scam_alerts.htm
) watches the various webmaster affiliate programs offered by casinos. For
a casino to be listed in a negative light on either of these two webpages
is not a good thing and can hurt the financial profitability of such an
operation long term.
I
have a critical view of the participation in SECA for the past years. What
have we achieved through the participation in SECA year after year? Not
much.
I
personally think that we should change the strategy and present Mauritius
as an Online Gaming hosting destination.
When businesses have an online business, it is evident that they need to
have a call centre to be able to operate. Online gaming businesses and
call centres do work together.
Where there are online bookies established, Gaming Software development
companies do get established as well to provide technical support and
service. In Costa Rica, big software development companies like IQ Ludorum,
Extension Software Inc etc have their offices there to be able to provide
support to the online businesses.
If we adopt this strategy, I am sure that we would get so much of business
that there would not be enough free space to fill in the Cyber Tower.
My personal view is that in SECA 2003, together with the strategy of
promoting the concept of Call Centres, much emphasis should be laid on
making Mauritius the destination for Online Gaming hosting business. |