Last week saw the ground-breaking ceremony of, Champion Place, a new state-of-the-art BPO office in Antigua, which will not only supply new, well-paid employment for around 800 people but will also be a flagship for investment and innovation in the work place.
The 5-storey building will be fully solar powered, offer an after school day care program for its employees as well as a fully equipped gym, covered parking and a roof cafeteria overlooking the beautiful Caribbean Sea.
But even before the additional jobs are created the building itself will bring a capital investment to the region of (US) $25,000,000. The man behind the build is Call Centre Services founder and Antiguan national, Calvin Ayre.
Here is an excerpt of Calvin Ayre’s speech at the event.
“I believe this project will serve as both a showcase and a beacon to international companies, alerting them to the vast untapped potential of the Antiguan market and the people that call it home.
A similar phenomenon happened in Manila, where I was one of the first to establish a BPO operation for online gaming. Today, most major online gaming companies – including many of the big firms publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange – have established their own BPO operations in Manila.
Anyone who has spent longer than 10 minutes talking to me knows that I’m an enthusiastic advocate of Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Currently, I see a growing convergence of Bitcoin, online gaming, virtual reality and gamification technologies, and progressive countries like Antigua are poised to take advantage of this convergence by developing a truly global services industry. This industry will require enhanced infrastructure, and this building is the first step toward developing that infrastructure.
Let me be clear: this project is about investing in Antigua, so our efforts here will in no way impact or replace my ongoing charity work in this great country. Indeed, this project is symbiotic with those efforts, as its success will demonstrate to the whole world what a great place Antigua is to do business.
So, in conclusion, our aim for this project is to represent opportunity and innovation and to project Antigua’s potential for growth, not just to the gaming industry but to the international business community at large.
Thank you.”
