It gives me great pleasure to attend this auspicious event on behalf of the Premier and of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape. The Premier, as you know, is a great devotee of the call centre industry and would very much liked to have been here today, but unfortunately he had to attend to other matters and asked me to speak here on his behalf.

We are pleased to be here for a number of different reasons. First, the call centre and business process outsourcing industry is a key part of our microeconomic development strategy. In his State of the Province address, the Premier made reference to this industry as one of the key employment drivers, along with tourism, and engineering. We well understand the industry's need for bright, motivated people with good maths and science skills and are putting the necessary measures in place to achieve this.

Second, it is always gratifying to see our Province succeed on the international stage and in our call centre industry, we believe we have an international winner. Our competitive costs, excellent service culture, and people skills make us a natural location for complex offshore customer service and sales processes. Last year, according to our industry development association CallingtheCape, international investors committed to new investment totaling R380m, creating 2 000 jobs in the process. To put this in perspective, call centre investment in 2004 amounted to a third of all the foreign investment reported by Wesgro. These jobs make a real difference to our economy.

Third, it gives us particular pleasure to be here today celebrating the expansion of a black empowered call centre company. Syntell Business Solutions was founded in 2000 as a joint venture between the management team and Tellumat. At the time, it was the only black empowered company in the sector, although I understand now there are 8 successful black owned call centre outsourcing companies.

Starting from scratch, Syntell has built up an enviable local and international client base, including such blue chip names as Centrica and Old Mutual. Their success reflects well on the potential of the industry to deliver real black economic empowerment, creating and sustaining entrepreneurs from all of our communities.

Finally, we are pleased to see this latest investment by Syntell because it shows the level of confidence our business people have in the sector. Their three million rand investment will only increase their local and international competitiveness, creating a great working environment for their staff and contributing towards the growth of our economy. Given the experience Syntell gained in running the call centre for the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa, the company must be in a strong position to compete for the contracts for the 2010 football World Cup and we wish them all the best with that.

So ladies and gentlemen I hope you will join me in wishing Syntell all the best for the future in their new centre. May they continue to lead the way for black companies in this fast growing sector. On behalf of the Provincial Government, I would like to wish them the very best of luck.