The country is still reeling from the effects of Covid-19, where over two million people lost their jobs as a result of the various lockdowns.

“We have to both recover the ground that we have lost due to the coronavirus pandemic, and to gain new ground by placing our economy on a fundamentally different growth trajectory,” Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter on Monday. 

“One of the concrete ways that we can do this is by harnessing the job-creating potential of the digital economy, whose growth has only been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.”

Last week, South Africa was ranked first in the world as a destination for global business services in a survey of over 600 executives from eight key sourcing markets, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA.

Last week, South Africa was ranked 1st in the world as a destination for global business services – often called business process outsourcing – in a survey of over 600 executives from 8 key sourcing markets, incl. Australia, Canada, France, Germany & Italy https://t.co/SjLRFfZeJ6 pic.twitter.com/VrnnLKPl14

— Cyril Ramaphosa ???? #StaySafe (@CyrilRamaphosa) April 12, 2021

“This is truly a remarkable achievement. In a short space of time, our country has propelled itself from a relatively unknown destination for offshore customer service delivery, in the shadow of large competitors such as India and the Philippines, to the very forefront of the global industry," said Ramaphosa. 

IOL reports the award means that the country has been ranked as the top global location for business process services. The business services sector includes call centres, technical support, and back and front office services for multinationals and South African firms.

In a statement, Minister of Trade and Industry, Ebrahim Patel, said: “The rapid expansion of business process services is a tribute to the skills of young South Africans and evidence of what South Africa has to offer as a business and investment destination.”

South Africa was ranked number two, last year, and in the current survey, the country has trumped India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Poland, Egypt, and Northern Ireland, to claim the top award for the first time.

According to the statement, while the sector growth was interrupted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that led to the closure of businesses, Patel issued regulations during the lockdown that enabled call centres to support local and global essential services to continue to operate.

“Further support was provided by the Presidential Jobs Fund during the pandemic. Together with the department of trade industry and competition incentives, the jobs fund supported 14 300 new jobs in the sector with R1.9 billion in export revenue,” it said.

Patel said the sector is a large and growing employer of labour. "The ‘re-imagined industrial strategy’ outlined by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019 laid the basis for growing established sectors (like clothing, poultry, sugar, and steel) and emerging or new sectors (such as call centres, the green economy, and digital industries)."

The statement noted that the South African industry believed it is poised to experience even higher growth rates in the years ahead.

"The industry has set its sights on supporting employment and investment by growing the export segment of the business services sector to employ tens of thousands of new workers in the next few years," the statement read.

Jacaranda News/IOL