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South Taranaki, New Zealand, June 3, 2016 -- A call centre company setting up a new regional centre will bring 10 new jobs to South Taranaki.

Connect Global director Siuai Fiso said the company had been looking for a site in South Taranaki for some time. He hoped the centre would be running by the end of August. Initial plans were for a centre with a staff of 10, with more as demand increased.

Although the company was based in Porirua, where it has a 90-seat call centre, it was purposefully taking its business into areas where there were people in need of work, he said.

In February it opened a second centre in Ruatoria on the East Coast, creating 14 new jobs.

With another opportunity to expand, it had decided to set up in South Taranaki rather than simply expanding the office in Porirua.

This enabled people to remain living in rural areas, stay close to their marae and their iwi, he said.

"One of the key lessons we learned from opening on the East Coast is there is a totally different mindset there. In the city there's a lot more opportunity to go from place to place, whereas in a rural area there is a lot of loyalty, a lot of commitment to the role and the organisation."

"We chose Taranaki partly because it is one of the areas identified in the Government's regional economic development report. It is also where my wife, Serena, is from so there is a lot of alignment there. Some of the key iwi in South Taranaki are Nga Rauru and Ngati Ruanui and Serena is from these iwi."

It was also one of the areas that Minister for Economic Development Steven Joyce had asked them to consider, he said.

The company was looking for a suitable building for the centre and was even considering having one built.

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"We've been looking at existing buildings in South Taranaki, but we have to get one that is earthquake safe."

Connect Global is a privately-owned, 100 per cent New Zealand owned company.

The Government's rollout of Ultra Fast Broadband would enable the company to offer even more jobs in its rural centres, as current internet speeds could not cope with the extra loading, he said.

"Obviously we would prefer to have UFB, high quality broadband, because then it is scalable, whereas without it we have to stay smaller."

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Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz