Muhammad Luqman

Pakistan's call centre industry has experienced remarkable growth over the past decade. Driven by the country's large pool of skilled English-speaking professionals, the industry is expected to benefit from growing demand from emerging markets, earning huge amounts of foreign exchange.

There are almost 1,100 call centres registered with Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) and 500 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies in Pakistan. In addition, there are thousands of unregistered call centres, including 1,700 in Lahore alone. The major regional competitors of Pakistan are India and the Philippines.

The two countries stepped in the call centre business in 1980s whereas call centre and BPO industry started taking roots in Pakistan in late 2000s. “Pakistan’s industry offers competitive pricing compared to India and other established BPO destinations with focus on personalised services and quality,” said Waleed Iqbal, Chairman of Call Centres Association of Pakistan (CCAP).

During an interview with WealthPK, he said that call centres in Pakistan are typically 60%-70% less expensive than their counterparts in the US and Europe. “This makes Pakistan an ideal destination for businesses looking to cut costs without sacrificing the quality of customer service or lead generation efforts,” Iqbal said.

He said that Pakistan’s industry is emerging as a major hub in the Middle East region with the availability of Arabic speaking resources in addition to English speaking manpower.  “No doubt, India has a substantial head start, but Pakistan is working to close the gap by focusing on its strengths such as cost effectiveness,” Iqbal said.

He regretted that several call centres and BPO companies wind up their businesses in the first six months of their establishment due to poor knowledge of the business. “It has been very hard to get international clients due to poor connectivity, political turmoil and image related issues,” the CCAP chairman said. The mushroom growth of call centres in Pakistan’s major urban centres like Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad has created thousands of job opportunities for the educated youth.

The representatives of call centres are usually educated and skilled agents, many of whom are fluent in English and other major languages. These agents have the technical expertise and communication skills necessary to provide high-quality customer support and sales services to clients in western markets. Iqbal said that call centre business requires only English-speaking human resource without any specific IT skill set.

“But there is still need to launch short courses for representatives of call centres at vocational training institutes both at the provincial and federal levels.” Successive governments have formulated a number of policies and laws to regulate the IT-enabled businesses, including software houses, call centres and BPO industry. Yet, IT professionals believe that there is still room for improvement in the regulations governing the IT industry.

“The laws should not be based on the whims and wishes of bureaucrats. Legislation should be carried out in consultation with all the stakeholders,” said Munawwar Ahmad, an IT expert associated with BPO industry. He said that all the call centres and BPO industry should be registered with PSEB or some other regulatory body to help ensure transparency and good governance in their working.

“Formulation of comprehensive laws and their implementation can check the incidence of fraud in call centre industry,” Ahmad said. Continuous government support coupled with tax incentives and uninterrupted internet availability can give a quick boost to the IT-enabled sectors like call centres, according to experts.

Credit: INP-WealthPk