MANILA, Philippines ? The Call Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) reported that its revenues has reached the $5 billion mark this year, beating last year?s $4.5 billion.

This year is by far the biggest growth the industry achieved since the CCAP was formed in 2001.

In his report during the recent Call Center Conference and Expo 2009, CCAP President Benedict Hernandez said call centers in the Philippines hired an additional 90,000 people in 2009, adding to the total of 275,000 employees.

The industry has a yearly hiring growth rate of 15 percent, according to CCAP. While the hiring rate remains at only eight percent, this is still nearly twice the acceptance rate from last year.

Hernandez noted that the Philippines has gone beyond being just a viable location to now a preferred destination for offshore outsource requirements.

While a large number of Philippines-based call centers still service US companies, Hernandez said the Philippines is getting more interests from English-speaking countries like Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

Among the new challenges that the industry is facing amid the economic crisis are new requirements from offshore clients to deliver services faster, cheaper and better.

Hernandez said CCAP will be initiating several activities to further improve the country?s edge as a call center hub as well as to increase the number of people to keep up with demand.

Among these programs include forming a procurement council among call center vendor partners; country benchmarking study to be conducted by PricewaterhouseCooper; language training in universities; and employee-related best practices program.

The CCAP is also engaging with government institutions such as the Department of Trade and Industry, Commission on Information and Communications Technology, Commission on Higher Education, and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.