Irish firm opens call centre in Haiti

1st November 2009

Irish Entrepreneur Terrry Clune has opened an office for his tax refund company taxback.com in Haiti, one of world's poorest countries.

The company, which provides tax, finance and travel services for clients in more than 100 countries, will employ 24 new staff in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince to provide tax documentation assistance to customers largely in North America.

Taxback.com's Haiti initiative is being supported by Digicel and the new office will be in the Digicel building owned by Denis O'Brien.

Haiti has an unemployment rate close to 70 percent and Terry Clune said he hoped the taxback.com example would encourage other companies to bring employment to Haiti and help stabilise the area. "As a business opportunity, Haiti provides a great location for providing services to our clients in North America and there is a large pool of potential staff there with excellent English skills," Clune said. "As a socially responsible company we hope that by creating local jobs taxback.com can help build a better future for this struggling nation." For US President Bill Clinton, who is the UN Special Envoy for Haiti and has been leading the campaign to help rebuild Haiti through the Clinton Global Initiative, commended taxback.com's move at a conference in Haiti earlier this month: "If we can have call centre in America operating from India and Pakistan, I don't see why we cannot have one in Haiti. They employ a lot of people in a good environment. So I want to thank [taxback.com]."

Source: Business World Digest