Up to 4,500 additional jobs will be created for Jamaicans through the construction of GTECH Park, a new business process outsourcing (BPO) complex in Portmore, St Catherine.

Prime

Minister Andrew Holness broke ground for the facility located at lot #2 in

Cooks Pen on Thursday, October 24.

The complex

will comprise three multilevel buildings, which can accommodate a total of

240,000 square feet of BPO operations, employing 1,500 persons per building and

up to 4,500 in total on a shift system.

The Prime Minister welcomed this newest addition to the island’s growing BPO sector, which represents a $3.5-billion investment by developer Portmore Holdings.

Holness

praised the entity’s Chief Executive Officer, Gordon Tewani, “for having the

faith in Jamaica to… make that significant investment”.

He noted

that the Government is continuing to put measures in place to ensure the

continued development of the BPO industry, which, he said, is a “strategic

growth sector for Jamaica”.

“We are very happy to support this industry because it brings in employment and some amount of foreign exchange… Employment in BPO is rapidly increasing. Since May 2017, [employment in] the sector has doubled, moving from 17,500 employees to now just about 36,000 employees. Within a few years, we could see employment in this sector possibly exceed 100,000 persons,” he said.

He said that

the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), has, to date, approved more than US$73.9

million in loans to the sector and is seeking another US$40 million from the

Ministry of Finance and the Public Service “to continue to enable the sector to

grow”.

“That will,

from our estimates, mobilise another 13,000 jobs in the industry,” he said.