Denise Clarke, Staff reporterWESTERN BUREAU:
Three thousand jobs in the information technology (IT) sector will soon become available, with the opening of two new companies and the expansion of another in the Montego Bay Freezone.
Overdrive, a Web-based publishing company, and Teleser-vices, another IT company, are due to start operating in the Montego Bay Freezone in a few weeks, the Freezone's General Manager Owen Higgins told The Sunday Gleaner on Thursday.
"The space is ready and the companies will move in as soon as we complete the installation of work stations and equipment," Mr. Higgins said.
Meanwhile, Indusa Global, a United States software giant, which already occupies space at the Freezone, will be relocating to occupy 10,000 square feet of space in two to three weeks. The company is currently sharing offices with the Caribbean Institute of Technology (CIT). According to Mr. Higgins, the expanded space will enable Indusa to fulfil its mandate to employ all the graduates of CIT.
"They have outgrown the present location...and CIT is expanding as well. So they are coming to take their own space...and they are going to employ all the graduates of CIT," explained Mr. Higgins.
Last year, Indusa provided programming jobs for 60 of the 81 graduates of the 10-month training course at CIT. The over 70 persons now employed can barely be accommodated in the small office space Indusa now occupies.
The company signed a partnership agreement with Mitsubishi Corporation, one of the world's largest companies. The deal, which was signed in February, will see both companies teaming up to market and develop products all over the world.
Overdrive, a Web-based publishing company, is due to take up 10,000 square feet of space in a matter of weeks, Mr. Higgins said, while Teleservices will occupy approximately half of the building.
"All three companies are recruiting and training as we speak," he said last week.
Mr. Higgins also disclosed that construction has started on a new building, which will provide 53,000 square feet of space for the IT sector by April 2002.
