12 May, 2007 - The second call center in the
country, TST system private
limited, opened in Paro on May 7 and hopes to go fully operational within this month.
The TST’s operational director, Tandin Wangdi, told Kuensel that the call center has employed around 35 telemarketers of which 16 of them were trained in Kolkata, India, with financial assistance from the ministry of labour and human resource.
“All of them are currently undergoing a product training and TST will be fully operational by next week,” he said.
TST, jointly established by three young entrepreneurs, will be working with a mortgage firm in the UK. “The telemarketers will be involved in night shifts from 5 pm till 2 in the morning and they are being trained for that as well,” said the operational director.
Meanwhile, Drukonnet, the first call centre in Thimphu, hopes to be fully operational in three to four months. The call center has been training around 150 people in English and computer since October last year.
“We are very close to starting our operation but it again depends on how soon we can implement the technologies,” said the Drukonnet Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Rajed Ohri.
He also said that the call centers in the neighbouring India started around 1996 and what they achieved within ten years, they wish to achieve that in Bhutan within two years. “There are challenges in terms of technologies and other factors, but the center has come a long way and everything will be ready soon,” said the CEO.
Going by the good governance plus report of 2005, a number of call centers and Business Procedure Outsourcing (BPO) should be established before July 2007.
According to the Department of Information Technology (DIT) officials, call centers and BPOs have the potential to create more job opportunities.
DIT’s aim of setting up call centers in Phuentsholing and Gelephu, however, has not been fulfilled as of yet.
The Bhutan Business Solution (BBS), the first and the only Business Procedure Outsourcing (BPOs) center in the country is currently training 48 people on medical transcription.
Medical transcription is where the doctors’ dictation from the United States will be listened to and put down in an electronic format. “The basic job involved in medical transcription is listen and type,” according to one of the instructors, Ramakanth Dubey. “That is why the trainees are being given intensive lesson on English, computer and the Language of Medicine (LOM).
Bhutan Business Solutions hopes to be operational within two months.
By Phuntsho Choden
phuntshochoden@kuensel.com.bt
