US e-retailer Amazon.com will open a customer service centre in Cape Town in October 2010 that it claims will create more than 600 new jobs in its first two years of operation, with an additional 400 seasonal jobs to be added during the fourth quarter holiday periods.

The facility will provide services in English and German and will provide customer support and service to Amazon customers in the US and Germany. Interestingly, it will not serve SA customers at all.

It’s not immediately clear how much Amazon.com is investing in the country. However, this is not the first investment the US company has made into SA. It already operates a software development centre in Cape Town and is actively recruiting new software development and system engineers.

In a statement, Brent Jaye, director of customer service at Amazon in North America, says the company is “pleased with the SA and Western Cape governments’ commitment to developing a customer service service industry. Cape Town is widely regarded for its hospitality and we are excited about drawing upon this customer-centric talent pool.”

Fagri Semaar, interim CEO of industry organisation Business Process Enabling SA, says the Western Cape government is pitching the province as a key investment destination for business process outsourcing. He says the Western Cape’s minister of finance, economic development & tourism, Alan Winde, has played an important role in securing Amazon’s latest investment.

Semaar says more details of Amazon’s investment plans will be announced in early August. — Staff reporter, TechCentral