In one year: PPP Govt has laid the foundation for massive job creation – Finance Minister

– as he tours BPO investment that created over 300 jobs in 1 year

Contending that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government has laid the foundation for massive job creation, Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh toured Midas BPO, a Business Processing Outsourcing company that has created over 300 jobs in just one year.

According to Singh, the Government has established a business-friendly environment that calls to investors. He noted that the PPP Government’s pro-business stance has been a policy position.
“Jobs have been created since we came back into office. We’ve done a number of things to lay the foundation for job creation. First of all, you have to signal that you are a business-friendly Government, you are eager to attract investments and you are supportive of investments in Guyana,” he said.
According to Minister Singh, the BPO sector is uniquely poised to deliver thousands of high-quality jobs and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has long recognised this opportunity. He pointed to the fact that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Midas BPO, Malcolm Sobers, is a product of the BPO industry.
“In terms of (Midas), this is a relatively new operation. This operation started in August and I was very pleased to meet with Mr Sobers and hear from him the story of the establishment of his operations and the growth and expansion. It’s a remarkable story and I commend him.”
“He started in Guyana, in one of the call centres we attracted in our previous term in office. He began his relationship with the sector. He has since worked in the sector, in and outside of Guyana and has a vast amount of experience in the sector.”
In fact, the Finance Minister said the CEO’s plan is to move upwards in the New Market Street building and when the capacity has been reached, to expand outwards to other locations. The Minister expressed hope that there would also be a decentralisation of BPOs, outside of Georgetown.
“We’ve seen some excellent developments of BPOs like this in Georgetown, but we would like to see these developments in a more decentralised way. So we’re looking for similar developments in other parts of Guyana. Region Two, Three, elsewhere in Region Four, Region Six, Region 10.”
“These are all heavily populated regions, with lots of young people looking for work. With young people who have relevant skills for the sector,” he said, adding that this is a conversation they are having with the leaders of the sector.
Meanwhile, Midas BPO’s CEO was in agreement that the Government has created the right environment for business. In fact, Sobers made it clear that he is looking to expand his workforce.
“We started in the end of August 2020 as a BPO company here in Guyana and we’ve started with 20 employees. We’re just over 300, over 3 locations – one in Grove, Lombard Street, and here in New Market Street. We just opened our new space here in New Market Street. We’re looking to grow to 1000 employees by the end of the year,” Sobers said.
While on the campaign trail, the PPP had made it a point to promise to create 50,000 jobs in their first term of office. Steps to fulfil this have included reopening closed sugar estates, tax and other measures designed to facilitate more private investments across various sectors and a massive housing drive.