Pacific nations told to change their attitude to attract business

Updated September 18, 2008 16:12:03

A working group from the recent economic summit in Fiji wants to turn Fiji into one of the world's major call centres by 2010. However, one international call centre operator which is looking at the region says Pacific Island countries need to change their attitude if they're to attract investment in the industry.

presenter: Sean Dorney
Speaker: William Pattison, the Chief Executive Officer of the international call centre operator, MindPearl

DORNEY: The operators handle business from all over the world. On a visit to his Brisbane centre, MindPearl's Chief Executive Officer, William Pattison, said Pacific Island countries could learn a trick or two from the investment bureaus in the Australian States - especially the one in Queensland.

PATTISON: We certainly looked at New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania as well as Queensland. Those people were very, very aggressive in luring you to their States. What I'm seeing thus far in the Pacific is an element of apathy where they are not tuned into how to deal with a possible inward investor.

DORNEY: MindPearl is examining two possible Pacific locations to set up new call centres - Fiji and American Samoa. But Mr Pattison says he must have chosen the wrong day to go to Pago Pago.

PATTISON: Because it was Flag Day and a lot of the meetings with the Government either got postponed, suspended or shortened. Some of the people we were expected to meet with weren't available. In American Samoa I can honestly say we are in the very, very early stages of analysing.

DORNEY : He says the attitudes of the local bureaucracies need to change.

PATTISON : It's been a challenge. We're continuing to work with various governments. But a lot of them are not clued up with what an outside investor is looking for. If you're sent to three or four government departments in one morning that is automatically going to delay your process. And if there's no communication between those departments whether it's your Immigration Department, whether it's your Telecom Department or whether you're looking for real estate that delays the process as well. I have found that working with the Pacific Islands the process has been a lot slower than what I experienced in Queensland in 1999.

DORNEY: I imagine the telecommunications are a huge issue?

PATTISON : They are by far the most important issue. That's probably the reason we have gone down to two locations at the moment. Neither are definite. But Fiji is connected through what is called the Southern Cross cable which is an underwater cable that goes through the Pacific. They definitely have the infrastructure to handle a call centre and if we went there we wouldn't be the first. There's already a call centre that's functioning very well in Suva, the capital. The other location that we're reviewing is American Samoa. They haven't got the cable connected yet but we're assured they'll have that by the end of this year. Once that's connected we'll start looking at it very seriously as a possible location.