Hi Dr. Ndemo, My apologies for not having highlighted the positives that the government has made in developing the ICT sector in general such as the Fiber link, upcoming ICT parks, EPZ status for BPOs, skills development, ICT frameworks, etc. That said, my response here was in respect to placing Kenya as BPO destination on the global stage. The BPO awareness that Kenya has received over the last 6 years has been largely due to operator efforts (a handful of BPOs). My take is that the government should take up the country's marketing efforts more aggressively and as below: 1. Yes, sell to large IT investors and attract the IBMs of the IT world to set-up/collaborate in Kenya. We are all aware that there is some work to be done in this front to get the capacity to attract such big players, and this might take a while. 2. But also, target the lower lying fruit: Over 80% of the BPO market is dominated by mid-sized companies from key markets of Europe and North America-outsourcing. These organizations outsource small projects (1-50 seats), which cumulatively have translated to employing over 250,000 staff in the Philippines/Malaysia for example. That did not come from a handful of big players setting up shop in the Philippines alone at the start, but rather many small to mid-sized organizations sending work there. The global BPO forums and symposiums always have tier3 destination governments in attendance, with the sole purpose of showcasing the operators in their countries, above and beyond, their conscious efforts of attracting big IT firms to set up shop in their countries. I could be gravely wrong here, but, going through all the major global BPO forums that have taken place in the last 3 years; Kenya has not featured in any of them (not by our government agencies at least). This means that very few firms out there consider Kenya as a viable destination to place work, or are even aware that fiber landed in Kenya. I still strongly feel that unless we come up with a collaborative, well thought through BPO strategy, we'll miss creating the kind of employment numbers that we are envisioning in the 2030 blue print. While it is not my intent to project negative energy, as a seasoned operator in the industry, I feel obliged to inform where I feel we are missing the targets. Best regards, Edwin Sales without Customer Service........is like stuffing money into a pocket full of holes. DAVID TOOMA -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+eonchari=lynxbits.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of bitange@jambo.co.ke Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 10:34 PM To: Edwin Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions' Subject: Re: [kictanet] Out sourcing; where does Kenya stand Fibre Landed in Kenya just last year. We do not have the facility to incubate upcoming enterprises or attract large IT Investors. We are still developing capacity. To go to market one has to have the product. GOK is aggressively digitalizing all its registries to encourage new applications. GOK has invested heavily on the ICT infrastructure. If we truely want to succeed and move ICT to another level, such negative energy is the last thing we need. Having made his criticism, perhaps Edwin should elaborate what he would have done under the circumstances or what he considers to be the right track to achieving vision 2030. Ndemo. Sent from my BlackBerryR -----Original Message----- From: "Edwin Onchari" <eonchari@lynxbits.com> Sender: kictanet-bounces+bitange=jambo.co.ke@lists.kictanet.or.ke Date: Fri, 1 Oct 2010 22:54:04 To: <bitange@jambo.co.ke> Cc: 'KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions'<kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Subject: Re: [kictanet] Out sourcing; where does Kenya stand _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: bitange@jambo.co.ke Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/bitange%40jambo.co.ke _______________________________________________ kictanet mailing list kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/listinfo/kictanet This message was sent to: eonchari@lynxbits.com Unsubscribe or change your options at http://lists.kictanet.or.ke/mailman/options/kictanet/eonchari%40lynxbits.com No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.445 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3171 - Release Date: 10/01/10 18:34:00