Honduras: smart call centers

A combination of bilingual personnel at a competitive price is the proposition behind a free zone, construction of which started last week in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

With an expected launch next year, Altia Smart City will involve an investment of $100 million, according to Grupo Karims, the Honduran company, which will develop and operate the center.

Grupo Karims last March inaugurated the first Smart City project in San Pedro Sula, Honduras’ second city.

Comprising a division of Altia Business Park, both centers are dedicated to the outsourcing of business process and information technology.

Karims expects to benefit from the availability of skilled, bilingual personnel, in a country in which there has been little development of call centers.

By contrast, regional BPO and ITO leaders Panama and especially Costa Rica have in recent years seen extensive competition for trained, bilingual employees, as a result of investments by companies such as Amazon, Dell and HP.

Low real estate and construction costs are others factors, which make the concept competitive.

The Tegucigalpa project, like the San Pedro Sula Smart City, is a free-zone operation, in which a client pays no tax on income, sales, or on the importation of articles used in its business.

Grupo Karims has extensive experience in the textile and apparel business, with production in Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.