[00:00.10]From VOA Learning English,
[00:02.48]this is the Technology Report.
[00:06.43]For years, many western companies
[00:09.18]have sent important business services to India,
[00:12.95]where they can be done at lower cost.
[00:16.68]This is called outsourcing,
[00:19.72]and it has brought jobs to India.
[00:22.47]Other countries have seen the economic benefit of outsourcing
[00:26.70]and are seeking to copy the Indian model.
[00:30.91]For example, officials in Uganda
[00:33.96]have opened an outsourcing centre
[00:36.46]to train people in Internet technology.
[00:40.05]Their aim is to create jobs for Ugandans.
[00:44.47]26-year-old Flavia Aliteesa studied information technology in school.
[00:52.62]Today, she is happy to have a job
[00:55.37]but does not perform high level IT work.
[00:59.57]She says, many of her former classmates
[01:02.07]have been unemployed for years.
[01:05.35]"First of all, I was given an opportunity to start working,
[01:08.01]otherwise I would have been seated back home doing nothing.
[01:11.05]At least it has given me a sense of independence,
[01:14.00]since I earn and I can do something on my own," said Aliteesa.
[01:17.25]Flavia Aliteesa works for a company called Techno Brain,
[01:23.21]it offers business process outsourcing,
[01:26.47]or BPO, to foreign companies.
[01:30.31]The Ugandan government hopes more companies like Techno Brain
[01:34.41]will begin operating in the country.
[01:37.21]Uganda supports its small but growing BPO industry
[01:43.11]by giving free office space and Internet service in Kampala.
[01:48.73]The government has trained hundreds of people
[01:51.73]in the skills that BPO companies need,
[01:54.79]and plans to train thousands more.
[01:58.62]Many people in Eastern Africa speak English,
[02:02.54]and the area is in the same time-zone as Europe.
[02:07.54]So countries there could be good places
[02:10.72]for call centers and data processing.
[02:14.08]And says Rogers Karebi,
[02:16.42]the head of the Uganda BPO Association,
[02:19.83]labor costs in other countries are growing.
[02:23.48]"Quite a number of firms in India,
[02:26.29]Asia and the Middle East have stepped up their prices,
[02:30.85]so the cost of outsourcing to the initially indigenous
[02:34.44]BPO destinations is on the rise.
[02:36.34]So, quite a number of firms in the demand markets
[02:40.33]are actually looking for alternative places to outsource to," said Karebi.
[02:44.74]But there are big differences between Uganda and India,
[02:49.59]one of the most important is the cost of Internet service.
[02:54.37]Most experts agreed that the cost of Internet service
[02:58.78]in East Africa would eventually be lowered,
[03:02.13]but even this might not be enough.
[03:05.03]Stephan Manning is an outsourcing expert
[03:09.33]at the University of Massachusetts.
[03:12.32]He says, East Africa might not have anything special to offer.
[03:17.08]"These services need to be distinct enough
[03:20.10]so that they don't enter price competition.
[03:23.07]And that's exactly the problem.
[03:25.47]In Kenya, if you provide English-speaking call center operations,
[03:29.89]then you do nothing different than the Filipinos or India,
[03:34.94]and there's no way you can compete on costs," said Manning.
[03:38.54]He says it might be better for African countries
[03:41.89]to offer their services to neighboring countries.
[03:45.46]That way, he says, they would not being competition with Asia.
[03:51.12]And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report.
[03:56.03]I'm June Simms.