ESC will take a 20-member delegation to the US to participate in the 12th ICCM call centre management conference and exposition in Chicago, according to an ESC statement.

"The worldwide IT-enabled services market is expected to reach $800 billion by year 2008 and offers huge potential in areas such as call centres, mapping and medical transcription, data entry, Web development and multi-media designing," executive director of ESC D K Sareen said. As per ESC estimates, the call centre industry alone is expected to grow at compounded annual growth rate of 16.6 per cent during 1997-2004 and the market size is expected to be worth $10 billion by 2004, the statement said.

"The call centre market is driven by the increasing need for companies to improve customer satisfaction levels, the influx of new computer technology and Internet applications, the growing number of informal call centres and the need to improve the flow of information at enterprise level," Sareen said adding, the ESC delegation's US visit is aimed at translating these trends into real export opportunities for the Indian IT-enabled services exporters.