MORE than 300 workers are currently employed at the Discovery Health Centre in the Coega Industrial Development Zone ODZ). Up by 96 candidates since operations commenced in November last year, the centre continues to set a benchmark as one of the key employment creators in the Eastern Cape.

Discovery Health chief executive Dr Jonathan Broomberg said the fact that the company was creating employment in one of South Africa’s poorest provinces validated the success of its move to the Eastern Cape. "The move to establish our Eastern Cape service team has been extremely successful. "We have found an extremely high quality of staff and are having no difficulty in recruiting to our demanding standards. "Performance has been outstanding, and we are receiving outstanding member feedback on the performance of our team in Port Elizabeth. "We are looking to expand this team rapidly and will continue doing so," he said.

As part of its drive to change the economic face of the Eastern Cape to that of a recognised economic hub in the province, the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) identified a need for the establishment of the BPO Park to afford expansion opportunities into the IDZ for interested investors. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is fast becoming one of the leading information technology-based services for developing countries from companies in Europe, North America and Australasia. Among other developing countries, South Africa is currently the second most preferred destination for this type of business. Within South Africa, BPO centres are based in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.

The CDC’s and BPO Park’s objective is to lure more investors into the contact centre business and to create job opportunities — a major focus of the government on existing companies. The BPO Park is about 16 600m2 and can accommodate a variety of investors.