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2 call center investors seek tax incentives
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Posted on Sep 17 2005
Two different business groups wanting to set up call centers in the CNMI are seeking tax incentives from the government.
Commonwealth Development Authority board chair Tom Glenn Quitugua said one company is connected with the Pacific Telecom Inc. while the other is the team of businessman Erick A. Van Der Maas, who recently acquired the Nauru building in Susupe.
“We’re taking a look at their business plans,” said Quitugua.
CDA administers the government’s qualifying certificate program, which grants various tax incentives of up to 100 percent in tax rebates for 25 years to investors who build, expand, and operate commercial projects in the CNMI. The program aims to strengthen the existing tourism and garment industries in the CNMI in general.
A call center business refers to reservations centers, help desks, information lines or customer service centers. This type of business is most popular in the Philippines and India—two Asian countries that have a high percentage of English speaking local residents.
In the Philippines, it is estimated that the call center business has generated 30,000 jobs as of 2003. By this year, the figure is estimated to rise to 100,000 jobs.
The U.S. has reportedly lost over 250,000 call center jobs to India and the Philippines since 2001.
Recent reports said that India is expected to benefit more with America’s outsourced call center agent positions fast losing their share of the global market.
Reports said that in 2004, 37 per cent of the world’s outsourced contact center agent positions were in the United States. By 2008, it is expected that the number will shrink to 25 percent or a drop from 315,000 in 2004 to 291,000 in 2008.
The CNMI’s QC program aims to develop new industries by targeting Internet-related businesses engaged in Internet commerce, Commonwealth-based airlines and other aviation-related activities, franchise restaurants, waterparks, cultural centers, aquariums, theme parks, convention centers, dinner theater, special events, golf courses, resort hotels and condominiums, and manufacturers or processors of high technology products.
