[kictanet] Day 4 of 10- BPO Discussions, Govt Subsidies

[Sam Aguyo]

Members
 
I would note that surprisingly there is little
participation of the practitioners.  This
could be strategic or otherwise.  Their
effective participation would give practical problems affecting the industry on
the ground.  Sometimes it is good to
avoid generalization, for example a good comparison is between same
environments – a goat with a goat, a sheep with a sheep and not a goat with an
Elephant, the latter even though animals but totally different characteristics. 
 
We may want to compare with our Indian brothers;
however the environments could be different.  In this respect facts and figures would reveal more.  I mean, the government provided this sort of
incentive/subsidy targeting this for this period and the output was this. 
 
Based on this, it would be critical to narrow down to
specifics that require intervention or subsidy, grants.  As an example, the government should improve
the environment within the EPZ by availing affordable and reliable bandwidth
commensurate with the requirements of the players then invite the players to
station there.  In return, such incentive
would attract a certain percentage of players of different configurations able
to employ a certain number of people and such configurations can source jobs
from such kinds of markets. This would add up!
 
We should not loose focus, what would be the return on
investment for such subsidy/incentive.  These words i.e. subsidy/incentive have the propensity to read handouts. 
 
Sam Aguyo
 



________________________________
From: Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com>
To: sam aguyo <saguyo at yahoo.com>
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2009 9:48:07 PM
Subject: [kictanet] Day 4 of 10- BPO Discussions, Govt Subsidies

-Dear Listers, 

I must thank all for your insights over the last few days.  I like the challenge that asked whether we are "over-regulating" an emerging market as the "answer" to the question on if we have legal and regulatory gaps. Listers are encouraged to challenge and not just answer the questions. Other arising issues included where we want to play within the BPO Value Chain, the Impact of the Political (in-)stability, the need to map our Data Protection laws to those in the target markets are just but some of the highlights I picked - and by all means this is NOT exhaustive as am still reading through the contributions. 

But today we need to open the theme on Government subsidies. The Researchers found the S.Africa and India had elaborate subsidy provisions for the sector that included Tax Holidays and Exemptions, Investment Grants to BPO operators, Training Subsidies, One-stop shop for Corporate Company Registrations that could be 100% foreign owned, etc. The Researchers noted the unique Mauritius case which had similar incentives but eventually abolished most of them arguing that they were more beneficial to the Operators than to the Nation.  

On the Kenyan front - other than the not so succesfull Govt Bandwidth subsidies for Operators, very little in terms of incentives was available to BPO Operators. It was noted that the BPO operators had to be within the EPZ in order to enjoy the subsidies other EPZ corporates operates - the problem being that most BPO operaters exist outside the EPZ area. Whats more, BPO operators had to pay additional charges to be registered by the CCK (Regulator) and should be at least 20% locally owned.

Qtn6:  What incentives / subsidies should the government provide to BPO operators?  What of the clause requiring 20% Local shareholding in foreign companies - is it prohibitive or helpful?

Floor is open comments.

walu.
Encl: Synthesis 2:- Subsidies and Incentives


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.kictanet.or.ke/pipermail/kictanet/attachments/20090606/c9210e1e/attachment.htm>