THE government will start highlighting in its investment missions the higher-value offshoring services that the Philippines is offering to help the business-process outsourcing (BPO) sector gain more businesses that are being presented by the recession.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said from being a foremost offshore destination for voice-based services, the Philippine BPO sector has expanded its offerings to include higher-value services such as finance, accounting, architectural and engineering services, software development, animation, game development, and medical and legal transcription, among others.

With this, the DTI will give more focus to these higher-value services in its trade shows and exhibitions, including the 10th e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition set in February at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

“The e-Services 2010 is geared toward carving a bigger niche for the country in the global offshoring business given the unique possibilities presented by the recession,” the DTI said.

Held annually, the e-Services Global Sourcing Conference and Exhibition is a two-day international trade show and conference acting as platform for information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services providers from around the globe to network under one venue.

For 2010, the show targets over 200 exhibitors and more than 2,000 trade buyers.

It is part of the government’s trade promotion program for the information and communications technology/BPO sector in a bid to further strengthen the country’s foothold as the outsourcing destination of choice in the Asia Pacific.

The DTI has given instructions to the Board of Investments, the Foreign Trade Service Corps, the Bureau of Export Trade Promotions, the Regional Operations and Development Group, and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology to help in promoting the 2010 e-Services.

The event is also supported by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines, Animation Council of the Philippines, Contact Center Association of the Philippines, Medical Transcription Industry Association of the Philippines, and Games Development Association of the Philippines.