CAIRO: An outsourcing call center with the capacity of 1,000 employees will be inaugurated today in Sixth of October. The investor company, Stream, is one of the biggest international outsourcing and tech services companies in the world with expected revenue of several billion dollars over the next few years. Stream is working on this project in agreement with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) as well as the Egyptian Information Technology Development Agency (ITIDA). According to Stream, the initial agreement with the Egyptian government was to employ 1,000 people within the first three years, but now this number is expected to be achieved by June 2010. In an exclusive interview with Daily News Egypt before the launch, the company's CEO and Chairman Scott Murray said that depending on the success of the enterprise, the facility can be expanded to host as many as 5,000 employees. "We are working with the Egyptian government to create a partnering program where they help create the English-language and technology skills training, added Murray. Stream opened in Egypt in 2009 with about 400 employees in a trial project. "This much bigger facility will be the formal opening to Stream's clients, he said. Stream plans to expand in Cairo as well as Alexandria, said Murray, and has already invested several millions of dollars. Investments over the next three to five years could be in the tens of millions of dollars, which depends on the scope, the scale and the type of work that is going to be done in Egypt. "The reason why we have selected Egypt is its close proximity to Europe and the ability to service multiple languages, explained Murray. Low labor costs in Egypt, especially in Alexandria, are also very advantageous to the country. "We see Egypt as the gateway to the Middle East because of the stable government, stable political system and high quality employees that can service not just Egypt but other countries in the region of the Middle East and potentially Africa, said Murray. He also suggested that Egypt is able to service Stream's North American clients in the telecom and computing space because of the strong English skills and also the time central proximity to both Europe and the United States. He also mentioned that there is a lot interest in Egypt from the IT sector. Last spring the signing ceremony between Stream and the Egyptian government in Washington DC was attended by the Chief Technology Officer of the White House. "Egypt is kind of an undiscovered gem and we are seeing many more multinational companies wanting to come to Egypt, said Murray, talking about the future of the local outsourcing industry. The government has been promoting the country's potential to become an outsourcing hub, following the example of the Philippines, where over 500,000 people are employed in call centers, he added. "It is in an early stage if I was to compare it to India or the Philippines, but potentially that type of scale will be achieved in Egypt, as other companies like ours enter into the market and create hundreds of thousands of jobs, said Murray. The outsourcing industry in Egypt, he pointed, will benefit the labor force. "These are clean jobs, they are high-end and they also not only have the technology services but managerial jobs which are typically 15 percent of the workforce, he explained. There is also a large proportion of women who work in Stream's call centers. Murray gave an example with Nicaragua and Costa Rica, where 60 to 70 percent of employees are women. In Egypt, this number is 40 percent - a significant figure since the Middle East has one of the lowest employment rates for women in the private sector. Before coming to Egypt, Stream opened in two other locations in Africa - Tunisia and South Africa, where the company employs 2,000 and 600 people, respectively. Tunisia services offshore French specifically due to the large French-speaking population and its proximity to France. Stream has 32,000 employees located in 50 centers in 22 different countries around the world. The next big targets for the company's expansion are Brazil and China. Murray predicts that the outsourcing industry will experience significant growth over the next few years, as the crisis is pushing big telecom and computer companies to seek alternative low-cost solutions for their customer care. "We have been the net beneficiary of the crisis, he said. "Many are looking for cost advantage that countries like Egypt can provide.
