By Ashford W. Meikle, Staff Reporter PRESIDENT AND chief executive officer of e-Services Group International, Patrick Casserly, says that there should be more partnership between the Government and the private sectors to achieve nation-building.
Mr. Casserly was speaking at the weekly luncheon meeting of the Rotary Club of St. Andrew, held on Tuesday at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston. Mr. Casserly commended the Rotary Club for its service to the wider community.
The e-Services CEO identified the Government, the private sector and young people as important players in nation-building. Mr. Casserly acknowledged "governments oftentimes have neither the resources nor, more importantly, the conviction to address the specific inequities for fear of setting a precedent."
At the same time, he cautioned against depending on "private sector initiatives to fill the gaps in the social safety net."
Mr. Casserly lauded the Rotary Club of St Andrew for its continued tradition of giving back to society and contributing to the social good. Highlighting the club's involvement with the St. Andrew's Girls' Home on Suthermere Road he noted that the club "has a wonderful tradition [of service], however, this is not necessarily so in the broader society."
Appealing to the business community, he said that the private sector "must drive policy unfettered by political objectives or an ever shrinking pool of resources. But, this is not to say that we must open only our chequebooks, rather we must give of our time and energy as this is as important, if not more so."
Reminding his audience that a company's most important assets are its employees, Mr. Casserly bemoaned the disinterest shown by the youth in the "process of service and ultimately nation-building". However, he acknowledged that, "our children require inspiration to participate in nation-building." This was important, he continued, because "there is an implicit contract between every Jamaican and our wonderful country. We must contribute to the social good." The e-Services Group, founded by Mr Casserly over a decade ago as a data entry operation, has evolved into Jamaica's leading offshore call centre and back-office processing entity. The company which has contracts with a number of leading American and European companies, concentrates it operations on medical claims processing, inbound teleservices, customer care, reservations, back-office processing and billing support. The company's Montego Bay headquarters covers over 90,000 square feet and employs over 1,200 persons. The company processes over 20 million transactions yearly and recently opened a 55,000 square foot facility in Portmore, St.Catherine.
