More than 100,000 people telework in Uruguay, which in 2009 represented revenues of US$500 million, in a model that will be applied in Chile and is being watched with interest by other countries in the region.
It has been 10 years since Paula left her permanent job and decided to devote herself entirely to teleworking so she could spend more time with her children. " I discovered a new world, with my own schedule and freedom," she said Thursday at a debate on the activity in which entrepreneurs, authorities and parliamentarians participated.
"It has its risks, but also all the possibilities for unlimited growth," said this woman who translates for clients in different parts of the world.
From handicrafts or used products sold through the Internet to translations, web design, consulting or accounting, the areas in which teleworking -remote work through information technologies- is developed are as varied as the capacity and innovation of those who bet on this type of occupation.
With the slogan "Live here, work there, earn there and spend here", teleworking began to take shape in Uruguay in 2002 with a workshop promoted by the company Netgate, in the context of the economic crisis that hit the region hard, and it is currently estimated that more than 100,000 people work in this way, sometimes as a complement to a formal job and sometimes as the only income.
Some 50,000 people do it exclusively for the outside, without a relationship of dependence, said Alvaro Lamé, director of Netgate and candidate for president of the Uruguayan Chamber of Information Technology in the period 2016-2018, which predicts that by the end of the year there will be between 70,000 and 80,000 teleworkers of this type in the country.
According to a survey conducted by the Radar Group in 2009, the average income of these people was $950 per month.
That means Uruguay received more than US$500 million last year from telework, a not insignificant figure considering that it represents half of the country's meat sales abroad (US$970 million in 2009), the main export product of this country of 3.4 million people.
Among the advantages of teleworking, Lamé lists flexibility, the generation of jobs in the interior of the country, access to a much larger market of clients, the development of an entrepreneurial mentality and even less pollution, due to less use of transportation to travel to a permanent job.
"There is no limit of age, gender or place, no matter the presence: it is judged by the quality of the product or service being sold," Lamé said.
"In today's globalized world, it can't happen that there are economic migrants, that someone leaves the country because they don't have a job," he added.
In 2007, 5% of teleworkers were in the interior of the country, while two years later the percentage rose to 40%.
The Uruguayan model has caught the attention of Chile, whose government will launch in September a development program based on the Uruguayan experience that aims to train 100,000 people in three years, Lamé said, adding that Colombia and Ecuador have also shown interest in the model.
In a country that has made a commitment to providing all children and adolescents with access to computers through the "One computer per child" programme (known as the Ceibal Plan in Uruguay), distance work can multiply.
"I think we're going to see it reflected in four or five more years, since the great advantage of Plan Ceibal is that the next generation of Uruguayans is going to be digital," Lamé told AFP.
"It is a model that can't be reversed," Lamé said, highlighting its efficiency "in termsof investment in relation to the result it has: social inclusion, economic inclusion and technological inclusion".
The strong growth of teleworking put it in the sights of Uruguayan legislators, who seek to end the absolute legal vacuum regarding this economic activity that by its very flexibility leaves workers without any of the social security benefits that an ordinary worker has.
Source: Portal El Observador.
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