With a global surge in interest for call centre services in SA, Outworx chief executive Robin Hoekstra believes the Eastern Cape is the new frontier for business process outsourcing (BPO) and has opened up shop in Gqeberha with a R12.5m investment — creating 500 jobs.

The R12.5m was an initial investment with the new premises located in Humerail, Hoekstra announced at the Kwantu Private Game Reserve.

He was joined by economic development MEC Mlungisi Mvoko.

“Post Covid-19 the international market and more specifically North America has recently discovered SA as a prime destination for outsourcing,” Hoekstra who was born in Gqeberha said.

“Right now, East London and Gqeberha are in a great place to generate significant employment because the other major cities like Johannesburg are heavily concentrated with call centre jobs.

“We are all now looking for other places.

“In this last year or two, we have had more business growth than we have ever seen historically — so it bodes well for the city and province.

“The Eastern Cape is not the catalyst to attract people to invest in SA.

“What it is, is an opportunity for the operators to offer a new geography to offer something dynamically different.”

While business process outsourcing is already in Gqeberha, Hoekstra said the scale brought by international players would see the employment growth dwarf the 500 jobs.

“There are call centres doing support services but international outsourcing at scale has not been done here yet,” he said.

“While we might be the first to launch, I know there are many other big operators which are going to follow in our footsteps.

“Some of the world’s biggest operators will be operating here soon.”

Hoekstra said the shift in work culture in Europe and North America post-Covid-19 had created a demand for a hybrid working environment.

This, he said, had contributed to the sector turning to SA.

“In the US and UK, employment is very expensive and there is a difficulty in getting people to engage in a lot of work, post-Covid-19 people want to work from home now and do not want to go to the office.

“Big organisations around the world are trying to save money, second they are looking for destinations that can support them in their needs and finding places they can trust to do the work well.

“I think during the pandemic we proved how resilient, nimble and robust we were and how prepared the people of SA were to galvanise and prepare to go to work in such trying times.

“Right now it’s almost akin to a gold rush for companies from overseas to come to SA looking for opportunities and they are coming to us to see if we can support their services.”

Outworx is a leading outsourcing provider with offices in Durban and Cape Town.

It offers support services for international companies in hospitality, travel, communications, media and medical support, among other industries.

Hoekstra is also the national executive director of national trade body Business Process Enabling SA (BPESA) and chair of the KwaZulu-Natal chapter.

“As BPESA we are trying to drive innovation, drive expansion, and are trying to convince the other operators in the country to look at areas like Gqeberha which are almost undiscovered.

“We believe the quality you will get in the Eastern Cape will be the same as the other major cities.

“Clients seek out partners they can trust to do the work.

“After that, they want to come visit where the work is being done and meet the teams working for them.

“When they arrive they want to be wowed.

“So it’s about great people, a beautiful work environment and a stunning country.

“The beaches, game reserves, and stories from here; it’s not short compared to all the other major places in the country.”

Mvoko said to attract investment, the Eastern Cape Development Corporation had introduced a global business services incentive package designed to increase support.

“The GBS sector therefore represents a remarkable opportunity for the Eastern Cape to address its unemployment and growth challenges,” he said.

Economic development, tourism and agriculture acting executive director Mpho Pebhane said some of the support offered to Outworx over the first three years of operation would be rent subsidies and municipal rates discounts.