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17 Teves 5765 - December 29, 2004 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Jerusalem Call Centers for Chareidim

by Yated Ne'eman Staff

Jerusalem was added to other cities, towns and villages receiving a subsidy for locally-oriented call centers, with special conditions designed to channel the subsidy to the development of internationally-oriented call centers.

As reported in The Jerusalem Post, to benefit from the incentives the call centers must be competitive internationally, at least 75 percent of the services must be rendered to clients abroad, and no fewer than 70 percent of the employees must be either new immigrants (having arrived in Israel since 1994), chareidim or Arabs.

"Our effort is focused on branding Jerusalem as a city of business opportunities in those areas where we have competitive advantages," said Eli Kazhdan, CEO of StartUp Jerusalem, an organization promoting economic development in the city, and key advocate of the program. "We look forward to a continued strategic partnership with the government, the municipality and the Jerusalem Development Authority to promote our nation's capital."

"If we succeed in helping foreign companies to successfully bid for the tenders of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, and as a result to employ a few hundred new immigrants, ultra-Orthodox and Arabs under one roof, then we see this as a great step forward that will certainly help position Jerusalem on the international map for offshore contact centers," said Jafar Sabbah of StartUp Jerusalem.

Other businesses involving phone line based outsourcing of work abroad, including providers of legal services and various medium- and high-technology services, are also intended beneficiaries of the program.

The government decision will take effect immediately and tenders will be issued inviting companies to take advantage of the benefits.

Sources indicate that there is discussion of further incentives which would complement today's government decision, such as breaks on municipal tax (arnona) and land development fees for all new businesses in Jerusalem, including call center projects.

CSM

The program will help recently created jobs in new or existing call centers in Jerusalem, providing NIS 1,000 toward the monthly wage of as many as 800 employees in the city for up to five years, sources indicate. The average base monthly wage in the city's only existing call center, CSM, ranges from NIS 4,500 to NIS 8,000. CSM, is a subsidiary of the US company IDT. CSM currently employs some 650 Jerusalemites even without government aid. Sources say that the average call center employee sees the position as temporary and will likely move on within six to nine months.

 

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