Contact centres are a major part of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), where rich nations outsource their work to developing nations because it's cheaper. India is by far the biggest low cost offshore market. Labour costs in India are a fraction of the wages paid in the US. A US bank, which outsources work of 1,000 American workers to India saves, says experts, about $18 million a year.

Bhutan plans to cash in on
the allure of call centres.
It faces daunting tasks Contact centres handle white-collar work of the companies of rich nations, mainly their internal operations, twenty-four hour seven days. It sells for them everything from credit cards to phone minutes to tracing lost luggage for US and European airline passengers and solving computer problems for confused American consumers. The explosion of BPO industry in India is expected to employ more than one million people and export US$ 25 billion of work by 2008.

Bhutan has allotted a start up budget of Nu. 15 million to promote call centres in the country. With the Ministry of Information and Communications at the helm, it is planning to set up three call centres in Thimphu, Phuentsholing and Gelephu.

The main aim is to create jobs. On May 1, the ministry's Department of Information Technology (DIT) in an attempt to drum up support for call centres held a workshop in Thimphu, which was attended by representatives from government, private sector, and youths.

“Call centres have immense potential for job creation for our unemployed youths,” said DIT's director, Tenzin Choeda.

Private sector's input and participation were critical to make call centres workable in Bhutan, said Tenzin Choeda. So far, however, private sector has shown little enthusiasm save one, despite government's promises of support of the set up cost, including equipment.

CHALLENGES
Setting up call centres in Bhutan faces several challenges, say observers.

Firstly, call centres rely heavily on cheaper, faster and better telecommunications, relayed via satellite or fibre optic cables.

Establishing seamless connections to customers at an affordable rate is critical. Bhutan's only telecom company- Bhutan Telecom- charges about US$ 167,000 for 1.0 mbps of international lease line, which is costly. That means about US$ 1,400 a month on connectivity circuit cost alone. On the other hand, thanks to liberalisation of telecom companies and also because of its huge population of Internet users, lease line of 1.0 mbps in India cost about US$ 3,000 a year.

“It would be impossible for Bhutanese call centres to compete because of the costly lease line,” said one Indian expatriate in Thimphu.

Secondly, proficiency in English language is vital according to experts as the bulk of the call centre's customers are predominantly companies from English-speaking countries.

Potential recruits are trained to pick up the American, Australian and British accents. Indian call centres draws on a large pool of English-speaking graduates, about 3.0 million a year, which gives its call centres bigger competitive advantage.

In Bhutan, the picture is not so rosy. Recently, the Ministry of Labour and Human Resources invited experts from Kolkata to select potential recruits for the planned call centres in Bhutan. Of a total of 163 applicants, 126 were short listed. Of that only 45 made it to the selected list. The rest, including some graduates, failed to meet the minimum requirements of English language proficiency. Kolkatta experts were reportedly surprised and dismayed at Bhutanese students' English standard. Some observers are also of the opinion that Bhutanese' indigenous attitudes of not taking it well towards long hours of work and verbal pressure may be a concern.

“Working in call centres is putting customers at their ease which means being mellifluous and friendly all the time, no matter what mood you are in,” according to a Bhutanese student working part time in a call centre in Kolkatta. “Many times customers on the line are rude. Taking well such pressure is critical to the credibility and business of a call centre.”

There are other limitations. Call centres need skilled managers and supervisors. It also needs specific recruit trainers. Bhutan has none. Hiring them from outside would cost money. A Bhutanese private company- Druk Konnet- which plans to establish a call centre in Thimphu, is hiring a trainer for Nu. 800,000 for six months to coach its recruits in Bhutan.

Information Communications Technology (ICT) skills are also in short supply. Call centres require ICT specialists, among others, for back up services. Bhutan's pool of about a few IT graduates a year is insufficient to meet the demand, said one IT graduate. On the other hand, India has a big pool of about 300,000 IT engineering graduates every year which gives it another big competitive edge.

For a Bhutanese entrepreneur, there is also the task of looking for potential customers to outsource jobs and convincing that you can do the job, said an observer.

Behind this bleak backdrop, competition is also heating up with Russia and China and the rest of the South East Asian countries, including SAARC members, armed with cheap telecommunication and labour, eager to wet their beaks also in the call centre cash pool.

“Bhutan's limitation will jack up the price and that will, in turn, impose other constraints,” said an Indian expatriate in Thimphu. “No company from rich nations will outsource jobs if it does not get standards of service at least as high as those it is used to at home.”

DIT's Tenzin Choeda, however, is optimistic: “We will work to make sure that call centres work in Bhutan.”

For starters DIT, with the backing of its ministry, is planning a proposal to convince the Ministry of Finance and Bhutan Telecom to reduce the cost of international lease line.