Call centers provide more than 20,000 jobs to the Dominican economy
Newspaper El Dinero prepares a report on the Free Zone subsector Call Centers & BPOs. With 20,177 direct jobs at the end of 2017, call centers remain an easy access door to the labor market. Under the incentives of the free zone regime, they open space for young people who are employed in the customer service area to offset their expenses or pay for a university degree that allows them to move forward.
With 20,177 direct jobs at the end of 2017, call centers remain an easy access door to the labor market. Under the incentives of the free zone regime, they open space for young people who are employed in the customer service area to offset their expenses or pay for a university degree that allows them to move forward.
Official figures indicate that the Dominican Republic has 72 call center companies (including contact centers and BPO’s) that at the end of 2017 represented US$243 million in foreign investment –5.4% accumulated by free zones– and generated 12.2%. of the direct jobs that this sector contributes to the economy.
“The call centers contribute around RD$1,518.6 million to the domestic economy every year, in payments for electricity services, to Infotep, water, social security and telecommunications,” highlights Luisa Fernández, executive director of the National Council of Export Free Zones ( CNZFE). “The total number of direct and indirect jobs generated by this activity exceeds the figure of 50,000 jobs,” she points out.
The CNZFE highlights, when enumerating part of the attractions offered by the Dominican Republic, that the country is in the same time zone as the East coast of the United States, thus facilitating communication with the population served in that market.
He cites among the incentives offered by the Dominican Republic its “cultural affinity” with the United States, tempered by a permanent migratory flow, as well as the recognition that Education First makes by placing the country in second position among the Latin American nations with the best “English Proficiency”. Index”.
It highlights the English Immersion Program promoted by the State through the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCyT) and which has been completed by more than 100,000 young people in recent years, as well as the large number of bilingual schools it has the country.
The MESCyT proposes among its goals to grant 150,000 scholarships from the English Immersion Program for Competitiveness between 2017 and 2020, of which it facilitated 20,721 last year, according to its memories.
The Government is also promoting a pilot English teaching program to boost the sector, implemented through the Professional Technical Training Institute (Infotep). Likewise, it highlights the creation, under the coordination of the Dominican Association of Free Zones (Adozona) and, with the auspices of the CNZFE, of a cluster that brings together all the companies in the sector that operate in free zones, “with the purpose of identifying initiatives to support the development of the industry in the country”.
The CNZFE highlights that the country offers one of the most attractive tax incentive packages in the region, which includes a 100% exemption from the main national and local taxes, as established in Article 24 of Law 8-90, on Promotion of Free Zones, of January 15, 1990.
