MANILA, Philippines--The country's business process outsourcing industry is expected to generate between $11 billion and $13 billion in revenue this year, as more companies turn to outsourcing and offshoring to cut costs and make operations more efficient.

Trade Secretary Peter Favila, in a recent speech read by Trade Undersecretary Elmer Hernandez, said the prospects for the industry were bright, as the world started to emerge from the economic downturn.

This year, he said the Philippine BPO industry should employ between 650,000 and 900,000 people, up from 400,000 barely a year ago.

The country is also likely to corner 10 percent of the global BPO market in 2010, Favila said.

The 2008 and 2009 recession, he said, enabled the country to show its competitive edge in the BPO space. Instead of slowing down, locally-based BPO firms continued to expand amid the crisis.

?A crisis is the best opportunity to show the world how we respond and cope. We can wait and see or we can use the crisis as an opportunity to leap past our competitor countries by capitalizing on new BPO areas where the Philippines has distinct advantages,? he said.

According to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Philippines still has room to explore other BPO areas, particularly the procurement segment.

The study showed that the country already had presence in the contact center, finance and accounting, human resource, marketing and sales, and legal services segments, but has yet to establish presence in the procurement space.

The Department of Trade and Industry believes there are still a lot of opportunities for the country to excel in this segment.

The DTI and the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions will be holding the 10th e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition on Feb. 8-9 to showcase what local BPO companies and other firms engaged in IT-enabled services have to offer.

Last year?s show generated $101 million worth of sales and contracts and attracted 1,464 local and foreign visitors.