'BPO can create jobs, contribute to economic growth'

KATHMANDU, July 14 :

Government officials have said private sector should tap the prospect of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) for employment generation.

Speaking at a workshop on ´Prospects and Challenges of BPO and Software Outsourcing in Nepal´, Minister for Science and Technology Keshav Prasad Bhattarai said the government was ready to help IT companies to resolve problems related to BPO. “IT companies need to invest more in this sector and stop brain drain by creating employment opportunities at home,” said Bhattarai.

IT companies in the country have been facing problem in getting skilful workforce due to brain drain of youth.

Stakeholders attend a workshop on ‘Prospects and Challenges of BPO and Software Outsourcing in Nepal’ organized by the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) in Thapathali, Kathmandu on Monday.(Republica)

“Most of the IT graduates prefer to go abroad as they earn much more there. If BPO companies create better job environment there, we can retain such talents,” Karmath Dangol, vice president of engineering at CloudFactory.com, said.

According to Karmath, Nepal holds great prospect for BPO as the country has large number of IT graduates, low labor cost and low cost of running business compared to other countries. Likewise, he cited lack of top talents, growing brain drain, low salary, difficulty in closing companies, lack of investment opportunity in the country and lack of industry meet ups as the challenges facing the BPO industry.

He also said companies should focus on Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) now. BPaaS is the delivery of BPO services that are sourced from the cloud and constructed for multi-tenancy.

Manohar Kumar Bhattarai, former vice chairman of High Level Commission for Information Technology said BPO is an opportunity for Nepal as it can create youth employment and contribute in economic growth.

SOurce: Republica