Guatemala makes good business sense.

Guatemala today is fully prepared and is especially qualified to become a technology, platform for today's call center / BPO operations. This industry has started to take off in Guatemala, and over the past six years has enjoyed a boom, turning it into a rapidly growing sector of the country.

According to a recent survey of international companies operating in the country, Guatemala's investment climate is highly attractive. Companies like HDN, Qualfon, Shell, Esso and ACS have logistics, data processing and call centers servicing international markets.

Help Desk Now, (HDN), a high tech customer support company headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, started its operations this year by establishing a call center in Guatemala City. HDN's call center in Guatemala provides a wide range of services and solutions for its clientele and has created 220 full-time positions. HDN will have 400 employees by September, 2005 and has expectations of increasing its staff to 1,500 employees in the next three years.

"The fact that we could move into a facility that was designed to meet our immediate telecommunication needs, coupled with a large, available, skilled and efficient workforce, did everything to convince us that this is where we wanted to be" said Manuel Aparicio, General Manager for HDN. Guatemala's excellent fiber optics connectivity, allows for a transfer of large volumes of data and information exchange among countries and regions. HDN service operators receive an average of 150,000 calls a week and process more than two million minutes monthly.

Multinational NEWCOM started operations in Guatemala in 2000 by offering high bandwidth integrated communications solutions through a regional platform for Internet and data link services. Leonel Quan, General Manager for NEWCOM said that Guatemala was selected based on many factors: a large available, skillful and trained workforce, a proactive business community; and an excellent telecom infrastructure; all of which have made NEWCOM succeed in the country.

"We are very proud that such highly regarded and influential companies have turned our country into their call center outsourcing partner", said Rodolfo Batres, General Manager for Invest in Guatemala, the country's agency for the promotion and attraction of foreign direct investment. Batres revealed that, unlike the rest of the countries in Latin America, Guatemala has the necessary infrastructure and labor force for global companies" entire call center outsourcing needs."

Currently, Guatemala ranks as a preferred location for customer service and business process outsourcing operations, including call centers geared toward fast growing market segments in the United States. A neutral accent and a bicultural, bilingual workforce provide an ideal top-drawer choice for this segment. "We are confident that Guatemala will become a leader in the call center industry for this and many other sectors", said Batres.

Invest in Guatemala is dedicated to supporting foreign investors seeking to explore offshore opportunities in Guatemala, by providing detailed insights through sector-specific groups of experts. To find out more about Invest in Guatemala, visit http://www.investinguatemala.org.