Dominican Republic Call Centers Cashing In On US Connections

The Dominican Republic has embarked on an aggressive campaign to ditch its tropical tourism image in favor of one that's a bit more technological. The country is banking on both its proximity and family ties to the United States to snatch up growing call center commerce as more and more industries seek business operations closer to home -- and more Americans are frustrated with customer service operators with accents from Asia.

The government in Santo Domingo is offering incentives, sending thousands of young people to English immersion school and clearing out failed textile factories to make room for one of the biggest trends in telecommunications: the Caribbean. The number of agents in the Caribbean increased fivefold in six years.

The Dominican Republic is not alone. Call centers -- even one for AOL -- have spread in St. Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad and Dominica, with an economic impact of at least $2.5 billion in the Caribbean alone, analysts say. Other countries in Latin America that have become magnets for call centers are Costa Rica and Panama.

''The perception that used to prevail was that the Dominican Republic was mostly a location for tourism with great beaches, a land of sugar and baseball,'' said Eddy Martínez, the Dominican Republic's secretary for exports and investments. ``The image out there was a distorted one. That image did not include the fact that we have the most sophisticated and advanced telecom infrastructure in the entire Latin America and Caribbean region.''

Four years ago, the country had just 11 call centers. Now, there are 56 and nearly 25,000 employees who, at salaries of up to $650 a month, earn two or three times the going rate for comparable jobs. With more and more companies looking to expand in Spanish-speaking markets, Martínez said he expects to see 100,000 call center jobs in the next four years.
http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/503466.html

By miamimike on Apr 20, 2008, 22:47 in Off Topic.