Call centers -- RP's emerging sunshine industry Call center service has been dubbed the country's latest sunshine industry, which is expected to generate around 24,000 jobs over the of the next two years. When a door closes, a window opens. Even as the Philippines feels the impact of the global IT crisis, it has benefited from the prevailing cost-cutting trend in an unexpected way: an unprecedented boom in the call center industry. Indeed, the call center service has been dubbed the country's newest. the solar industry, the sector of which is expected to generate around 24,000 jobs over the next two years, according to Toby Monsod, former deputy secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). "It's a very promising industry. Everyone is growing and hiring," Benedict Hernandez, president of the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP), said in a recent interview. From 2000 to 2001, the segment is reported to have grown by more than 200 percent and call center revenues are expected to increase from $173 million in 2002 to $864 million in 2004. Optimism is high as An international research group predicts that ICT-based services will be a $200 billion industry by 2010, with the call center segment growing to $42 billion. Reports indicate that in the United States alone, there are 1.5 million call center seats that could be outsourced, and so far the Philippines has less than 10,000 seats filled, indicating the the enormous potential of the national industry. What are call centers? A call center is a central customer service operation in which agents (often called customer service specialists or customer service representatives) handle telephone calls on behalf of a customer. Customers include mail order companies, telemarketing companies, IT product support services, banks, financial services and insurance groups, transportation and freight handling companies, hotels and IT companies. The size of an operation is described in terms of the number of "seats". A seat consists of a shift of two or three people rotating into several shifts to provide 24-hour call center service. The industry's main target markets are the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Many factors contribute to the rapid pace of development of the local industry. One of them is the increasing cost of doing business. in industrialized countries like the United States, which forces foreign companies to downsize and outsource their peripheral electronic services to developing countries like the Philippines in order to reduce their overhead costs, CCAP President Jose Ferreros quotes. also improved electrical and telecommunications infrastructure, competitive labor cost in terms of quality and value for money, and strong government support for ICT-related industries.