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‘Saipan call center up in six months’
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Posted on Mar 04 2006
Businessman Erick Van Der Maas projects to set up a call center on Saipan within four to six months.
In an interview Friday, Van Der Maas said that he and his Los Angeles-based business partner, Hans Smith, actually look at starting the operations this summer.
“We have to start training people. We’ll have people from the states come here for training. We need to bring in the equipment. Hopefully, full operations will take place in four to six months,” said Van Der Maas.
He said the company’s potential clients are “well-established customer-based companies” in the mainland U.S.
He said the necessary equipment would be brought in from the United States, primarily through Smith. He described Smith as “the expert in telecommunications.”
We Manage Calls shares are 35-percent owned by Van Der Maas and 65-percent owned by Smith.
Both investors are originally from Holland.
Van Der Maas, who moved to Saipan from Taiwan five years ago, is into computer business while Smith is into telecommunications.
After a long legal discussion, Van Der Maas purchased the Nauru Building in Susupe.
The businessman said the entire 7th floor of the building would be used for the call center business. In earlier days, the 7th floor had been exclusively reserved for VIPs from Nauru.
We Manage Calls recently received its requested tax break of over 10 years from the Fitial administration.
The administration, upon the recommendation of the Commonwealth Development Authority, granted the company a qualifying certificate, giving it a 100 percent corporate income tax rebate for 10 years, 100 percent business gross revenue tax abatement for five years, and full excise tax abatement for three years.
The granting of the full tax break request came following the company’s threat to move to Guam after being granted only $2 million worth of tax incentives last year.
Meantime, Van Der Maas said the company aims to invest $2 million, which it estimates to generate a cash flow of $98 million over 10 years.
The company would employ over 200 personnel after two years of operation.
