MANILA, Philippines -- This year's e-Services conference takes on a global flavor with CEOs and other industry executives arriving from different parts of the world.

The end-goal is to elevate and promote the Philippines in the same league as outsourcing powerhouse India.

Aside from delegates from India, representatives from the United States, Latin America, and other Asian countries like China, Japan and Vietnam are expected to attend next month's conference.

The conference is organized by the Department of Trade and Industry (through the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions or CITEM) in collaboration with the Business Process Association of the Philippines (BPAP).

Tholons, a research and advisory firm devoted to the outsourcing industry, is also helping organize the event, tasked with identifying and bringing over resource speakers.

TK Kurien, head of India's Wipro, is already a confirmed speaker along with executives from investment firms General Atlantic and Wachovia Capital.

This year's theme revolves around "sharing of key industry learnings and best practices," said Oscar Sanez, who heads local industry group BPAP.

That kind of sharing by itself takes on a local and a global perspective. There will be speakers from major local players and likewise from different "centers of excellence? like India, Latin America and even China, touted as a potential outsourcing powerhouse.

"What has been apparent is that we are in a fast-maturing industry. We now have to look at ourselves, at the Philippines as a global player," Sanez said, speaking via telephone.

The local outsourcing industry is in a transition stage, looking to grow the industry further beyond what has been accomplished during the first half of this decade.

From roughly a $4-billion industry, BPAP is looking to grow the industry three-fold in terms of revenues (and generate a million jobs) by 2010.

"This year's e-Services will somehow formalize and represent what we as an industry is aiming for: That of becoming a truly global player," Sanez said.