International operations offices throughout rural areas of Venezuela
www.vheadline.com Posted: Thursday, January 30, 2003 - 5:01:56 PM By: Oscar Heck
VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes: Mr. Oliver L. Campbell's recent letter to Vheadline.com (www.vheadline.com) brought up some interesting points and reminded me of a recent discussion I had with a young tourist from Zimbabwe who was on an adventure tour in Los Llanos ... the vast central plains of Venezuela.
I mentioned to this young man, the son of a British-born merchant and businessman, that I was in the process of transferring a portion of my business to Venezuela. His immediate response was "...so you can take advantage of the low wages?" My reply was "...no, because I love Venezuela and its people, and because I can now handle my business through the internet and it does not matter where I work from. I will be paying my employees maybe 3 times the present minimum wage ... a deserved wage for the work required in comparison with the cost of living here ... and I still make a very good profit!" He was surprised, and responded with a question "but why would you do that?" My response was simple "because I believe in it!" He never spoke to me again.
Perhaps people who are listening can consider something similar in nature. That is, since many businesses can now be managed through the internet, covering an ever-increasing international market (versus a local market), it may be worthwhile for the Venezuelan government and private enterprises to promote the establishment of small "international scope" operations offices throughout rural areas of Venezuela (and pay the employees decent wages).
An example of this occurred in Canada several years ago ... the New Brunswick Provincial Government (one of the 10 Canadian Provinces - with a high level of unemployment), promoted the establishment of "call centers" in rural areas of New Brunswick: representing hundreds, if not thousands of jobs for people who were mostly on welfare, or who only had seasonal jobs.
Such a venture, for example, can be initiated from almost any place in the world that has reliable telephone/internet access. In addition, it is relatively easy to train personnel.
With respect to paying better than the minimum wage (the minimum wage in Venezuela is pittiful), I discussed this with one of the promoters of international manufacturing investments for the Zona Libre, State of Merida (in the Venezuelan Andes). His response to me was "you can pay whatever wages you want, so long as it complies with the laws ... if you decide to pay better than the norm, it's your choice ... but it will be better for everyone ... better for the employees, the people will respect you more ... and you will have honest, devout employees ... they will not steal from you, because you will be treating them well ... and you will have employees from other companies asking to work for you!"
These are perhaps thoughts worthy of consideration?
Oscar Heck oscarheck111@hotmail.com