The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies says the Global Business Services (GBS) incentive which became effective from 01 January 2019 will create employment opportunities for youth in South Africa. Minister Davies launched the Global Business Services (GBS) Incentive last month at the SA House in London, United Kingdom.
Davies says the opportunities will be especially in the areas of medium to high complexity jobs, youth will be exposed to servicing major global brands out of South Africa.
“Areas of special interest by potential global investors are Legal Services, Finance and Accounting and IT Services. South Africa’s Value Proposition remains a compelling business case for most global companies that are looking to optimise their customer solutions at a globally competitive rate,” says Minister Davies.
The sector has demonstrated an annual growth rate of 22% on average year on year and it is expected that the growth rate will continue to increase over the next 5 years.
Davies indicates that through continuous monitoring of the sector, global benchmarking study and investor engagements, the dti has been able to present a revised Global Business Services incentive.
“The key components of the GBS incentive include a 3 tier incentive program which includes a non-complex job, medium complexity job and high complexity job, with an increase in value across all 3 tiers. A further change includes a reduction in the minimum criteria of 50 jobs across all levels of work to a minimum of 30 jobs for medium to high complexity jobs. To ensure that South Africa delivers the best quality services at the right price, the eligibility criteria was amended to include a minimum salary threshold of R60,000 per annum for entry level agent roles,” highlights Minister Davies.
Although South Africa offers significant cost arbitrage in comparison to their source markets such as UK, US and Australia, with the added befit of the incentives, South Africa will be able to attract a significant share of the opportunities presented by global market which this sector presents. the dti has partnered with the industry to develop a compelling value proposition to investors which will support government’s objectives of job creation within South Africa, primarily for youth and increase export revenue. BPeSA, the Industry body representing the Global Business Services Sector in South Africa, welcomed the revised incentive package which will ensure that South Africa remains highly competitive as an offshore delivery location for the Global Business Services in an increasingly more competitive global market impacted by the digital economy and the journey into the Industry.
South Africa’s Value Proposition for global business services is underpinned by good quality English-speaking talent, significant cost savings, a strong foundation in contact Centre and niche services, evolving capabilities for next-gen services for digital contact centres and world class infrastructure.
The new Global Business Services incentive has replaced the previous Business Process Services Incentive.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Department of Trade and Industry, South Africa.
