Service Industry

Constructing Future Growth Opportunities: The Potential to develop an Intensive Civil Engineering and Construction Works Exports Strategy

by LOWITT, S, 2008
Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council

Lowitt assesses the economic contribution of South Africa’s civil engineering and construction works sector through both domestic and export activity. She then compares the domestic sector and government’s approach to export activity with those of other developing countries. The idea of using external demand to grow a domestic construction sector is not new, and international…

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Business process outsourcing in identified financial services sub-sectors: the potential for offshore business flows into South Africa and consequent recommendations for targeted government support

by VAN DER HEIJDEN, T., 2006
Research Report, Employment Growth & Development Initiative, Human Sciences Research Council

Business process outsourcing (BPO) has enormous potential to support economic growth and employment in South Africa. So far, the focus in SA has mainly been on contact centres, where South Africa does not enjoy a comparative advantage. Competitive advantage is more likely to be found in back-office BPO: this paper specifically looks at potential opportunity…

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Industrial Strategy, Offshoring, and Employment Promotion in South Africa

by ALTMAN,M., 2012
Bardhan, Ashok, Dwight Jaffee and Cynthia Kroll, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Offshoring and Global Employment, Oxford University Press. Chpt 24 pp 620- 646

South Africa has an extremely high rate of unemployment, but also substantial capacity in the service industries. Business process outsourcing and offshoring (BPO&O) is a rapidly expanding global opportunity through which the country might generate many jobs in traded activities. It is essentially a new activity, enabled by the diffusion of broadband and Internet services…

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Potential Job Creation in the South African ICT Sector

by LOWITT,S., 2012
Research Report. Human Sciences Research Council.

Lowitt analyses potential job creation in ICT. She provides a demand-side analysis of ICT and broadband, using four categories of demand: private consumption (individuals), private investment (large and small firms), government demand, and trade demand (sale of ICT-enabled services). The ICT sector is dealt with as a separate sector, whose size depends on demand from…

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Broadband for South Africa: Capital Investment and Policy Dimensions

by KLEEMAN,M., 2012
Research Report. Human Sciences Research Council

Kleeman assesses the investments required to achieve 100% broadband coverage. He uses case studies of Malaysia, Brazil, Korea, Ghana and Kenya. Kleeman sets out the
investment required for national broadband, alternative forms of access, the potential role of government, and different investment models. This report is part of the Vision 2020 process of the Department of…

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Vision 2020 ICT Investment Executive Summary

by ALTMAN,M. , KLEEMAN,M., LOWITT,S. & DALBERG DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS, 2012
Research Report. Human Sciences Research Council

This report is part of the Vision 2020 process of the Department of Communications. It focuses on how to achieve investment towards 100% broadband and how to optimise job creation impacts. It assessed the supply side (infrastructure investment) as well as the demand side (factors that increase data use). The country case studies helped to…

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Identifying Opportunities to Drive Demand for ICT in South Africa

by Dalberg Global Development Advisors, 2012
Research Report. Human Sciences Research Council

This report is part of the Vision 2020 process of the Department of Communications. It reports on a three-part analysis of the links between ICT investment and job creation in South Africa. It reviews barriers to broadband usage, assesses demographic trends, and offers a global review of demand-side interventions. The presentation suggests a three-pronged strategy…

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ICT investment & jobs – Country case studies

by Dalberg Global Development Advisors, 2012
Research Report. Human Sciences Research Council

South Africa’s aspiration for 2020 is to achieve 100% broadband coverage, while maximising both economic and employment growth. A number of paths can be followed to achieve this target: enabling digital citizens, supporting the industry, and building global leadership in ICT products and services. These dimensions are not sequential. For example, India was not a…

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Cloud computing in South Africa: Prospects and Challenges

by GILLWALD, A., MOYO, M. & ALTMAN, M., 2012
In Unlocking the Benefits of Cloud Computing for Emerging Economies (eds Cowhey, P & Kleeman, M. Monograph, University of California-San Diego.

Cloud computing is scalable, on-demand provision of remote computing and data storage. Its dramatic growth is captured in a 2011 study that predicted that by 2014, over 60% of the world’s server workloads would take place on virtualised cloud servers, up from 8% five years earlier. This growth stems from the cloud’s advantages of scale…

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