It was truly good news for Gozo that discussions are underway over the setting up of another call centre on the island. The state’s incentives for such operations seem to be enticing enough and it will surely offer good opportunities to talented people on this island which, though geographically has the double insularity handicap, technologically and location-wise can compete with the best.

However, speed, I would think, is of the essence, for developments wait for no one. While the nationality of the proposed operator has not yet been divulged, one could do no less than be aware of what is brewing in a city in the States that hosts many Gozitans, namely New York.

In an effort to slow the outsourcing of American jobs, New York Senator Charles Schumer is proposing a tax on companies that transfer calls with US area codes to foreign call centres. His proposed legislation would tax companies 25 cents for each customer service phone call that is outsourced to a foreign call centre. Schumer also wants to make companies inform customers when their calls are being transferred outside the US and to which country. This bill will not only serve to maintain call centre jobs currently in the United States, but will also provide a reason for companies that have already outsourced jobs to bring them back, said the senator in a statement.

Under Schumer’s proposed bill, companies would also be required to report their total number of customer service calls and the number re-routed to foreign call centres.

Many American companies locate call centres overseas to reduce costs. India, Indonesia, Ireland, Canada, the Philippines and South Africa are among the countries that US companies use to outsource call centres. What New York Senator Schumer perhaps failed to mention was that call centre outsourcing cuts costs for several US companies, thus making them more competitive. At the same time, it is right that people’s representatives take a pro-active approach and, for example, insist that customers be informed when their calls are being transferred abroad, especially if to jurisdictions where certain privacy and non -taping safeguards are not so hard and fast. However, as with the anti-terrorism measures undertaken under the Bush Administration, it does not make business or any other sense to burden unnecessary individuals and businesses with bureaucracy such as some measures proposed by Schumer, which still allows loopholes to smart thwarters.

Here too I would think that Maltese and Gozitans in the diaspora should wise up and contact their elected representatives to not allow measures that short-circuit foreign investments to these small islands, which boast a far more functional multi-party democracy than basic-freedoms-flaunting China, which has had the lion’s share of United States overseas investments.

G Bonett

MARSALFORN