In the last decade, many Western multi-nationals have outsourced much of their customer service to call centres in India, where the staff speak good English.

But the Pacific says it's got the skills and the staff to compete ....and the region's now claiming a share of this thriving call centre industry.

Clement Paligaru: When the Australian bank ANZ decided to set up a call centre in the Pacific, it chose Fiji - the hub of its regional operations.

ANZ Pacific CEO, Craig Sims: Fiji sort of ticks the boxes. Because we've got access to a whole bunch of talented youngsters that come from the University of the South Pacific. It's got the infrastructure in terms of reliability around electricity, power, the Southern Cross Cable so we can get communications across the whole of the Pacific.

Clement Paligaru: Servicing the Pacific and parts of Asia, the call centre operates around the clock, all year.

Craig Sims: Not only does it do what call centres do in terms of customer enquiries, it actually does processing for our customers, across the whole of the Pacific. So to give you an example, if we have a customer from Papua New Guinea who is on holiday in say Australia. They've lost their credit card. The Fiji operator would then take the call, in that case would block the credit card, would then order a new credit card, and hopefully within 24 hours would get a new credit card to the person in Australia.

Clement Paligaru: The Fiji government wants 10,000 call centres and it's pitching at companies scouting the Pacific, like global call centre provider, Mindpearl.

Mindpearl CEO, William Pattison: Fiji is connected through what's referred to as the Southern Cross which is an underwater cable through the Pacific . They definitely have the infrastucture to handle a call centre. And if we went there, we wouldn't be the first. There's already a call centre that's functioning very well in Suva the capital

Clement Paligaru: The Pacific also claims to have clearer English than India, which dominates the industry.

William Pattison: The negativity that surrounds India doesn't come through because the people belive it's a South Pacific accent. They speak clearly. And I feel confident that Fiji could be a possible location.

Clement Paligaru: A consortium in American Samoa also wants a slice of the lucrative international call centre industry. It's a U.S. territory with an American education system - and accent. That "neutral" or international accent, is one of the territory's selling points.

Call centre consortium, John Newton: There are some types of calls that can much better be handled by what is called a neutral accent and where people answering those calls understand American idioms and the little idiosyncracies of the language, which we find lacking in the call centres overseas.

Clement Paligaru: The call centre project needs substantial infrastructure, particularly a high speed fibre optic cable network which links American Samoa with the U.S. mainland. It is hoped that by 2009, the territory will be hooked up with an underwater cable network which already links the U.S. with Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.

John Newton: What this will do is increase the capacity of telecommunitcation services: the speed, the efficiency, and bring us into the 21st century in terms of telecommunications.

Clement Paligaru: The territory hopes to establish a call centre business to rival the tuna industry which dominates the local economy.

John Newton: It is potentially the most important thing that has ever happened here economically. Ever. Including the canneries.

Clement Paligaru: Each year many young American Samoans still leave for better opportunities on the U.S. mainland. But it's hoped call centres, offering better wages and working conditions, would stop the brain drain.

John Newton: If people are going to be staying here. And they're they're going to be employed at a paid at a scale where they can afford to have a home, then they're going to be building homes, they're going to be buying cars. They're going to want to buy more expensive clothing and better quality food even and all of these are going to help bring the economy up in many ways.