Business Processing Outsourcing & Offshoring in South Africa

Despite the opportunities that the Business Processing Outsourcing and Offshoring (BPO&O) industry offers to South Africa in terms of gainful employment opportunities and exporting services to developed countries, very little research has been done in the South African context. The objectives of the study were to identify the main trends, developments and patterns in the BPO&O sector and understand the policy and regulatory initiatives as well as the institutional arrangements used to promote the industry in South Africa. The case study also aimed to understand the implications for South Africa's trade policy of the government's desire to promote business processing services offshoring. The case study used the embedded mixed methods case study approach with quantitative data analysis embedded in qualitative analysis. Documentation and open ended- interviews were the main techniques used in collecting the data for analysis. Key participants for interviews were identified based on their expertise and experience in the BPO sector in South Africa using maximal variation sampling so that people with different perspectives on sector could be interviewed. The case study findings reveal

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Batanai is accomplished Trade Economist and Trade Policy Specialist with over 12 years professional experience. He has worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat "Hub and Spokes" Project on trade capacity building as a Trade Policy Analyst. He is currently employed as a Trade Policy Officer by the African Union Commission.