Despite the covid-induced economic contraction, South Africa’s wining of the Global Business Service Award following a stiff competition against India, The Philippines, Malaysia, Poland, Egypt and Northern Ireland, signals the enormous potential that South Africa has and its ability to become not only a robust economy, but also a global centre of business.
South Africa won the award after earning US$127 million in foreign exchange in the previous year, Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Ebrahim Patel said.
Stiff competition
The country faced stiff competition from India, The Philippines, Malaysia, Poland, Egypt and Northern Ireland in claiming the top award for the first time after ranking second last year, Patel said.
“In a boost to business confidence, South Africa has won an award as the top global location for business process services in a sector that is rapidly expanding locally, and exporting call centres and related services to other parts of the world,” Patel said.
With this South Africa has positioned itself as one of the premier locations internationally for business services and obviously, as a potential cenre of growth.
“The business services sector, which includes call centres, technical support and back and front office services for major multinationals and South African firms, has seen exceptional growth in recent years, and has been a major source of job creation for young South Africans,” he added.
The minister acknowledged the fact that the award was made possible by the government’s financial injection into the sector during the global pandemic and that helped the Industry to flourish despite the contraction and even against the backdrop of worldwide recession.
“The state funding helped to showcase the talent, technology and know-how of young South Africans and to allow them to compete against the best in the world by creating 14,300 new jobs in the sector”, Patel said.
This proves, beyond shade of doubt, the fact that the timely and clinical injection of capital into vital sectors of the economy will not only stimulate the contracted economy, creating gainful employments, but also create new markets and centres of service excellence as that of South Africa, which thanks to prudent government’s intervention, has now become a global centre for Business Services.
