Economic transformation and industry upgrades have become more urgent due to the impact of global financial crisis. At a municipal economic work conference, the Municipal CPC Committee and Government defined the leading industries of Huaqiao Economic Development Zone and financial BPO as being the major industries of the city.

As the only provincial development zone that has the modern service industry as its leading industry in China, the Huaqiao Economic Development Zone will play an important role in the new round of industry adjustment and transformation.

The financial crisis has resulted in the adjustment and transformation of the global financial industry. Many financial organizations in the developed countries of Europe and the US have stepped up their outsourcing of non-core businesses in order to reduce costs. Financial BPO is the future for cost reduction, process reconstruction, and resource integration, and is a choice that cannot be overlooked. Therefore, this is a rare opportunity for the development of the Huaqiao International Service Business Park which neighbors Shanghai and has basically formed a complete financial BPO industry chain.

In fact, the Business Park made financial BPO the leading industry on the development agenda before the explosion of financial crisis last year. The Business Park was actively adjusting the strategy and style for investment to suit the requirements demanded by industry development. Moreover, the Business Park coped well with seeking investment from Europe, the US, South China, and Taiwan. Projects of foreign investment and non-government capital, all part of industry chains and bases, were managed in a professional way. Last year, the Business Park has successfully arranged for China Data Group, which occupies 80 percent of the domestic financial BPO market, to set up in the Business Park within just 28 days and invited Start Computer Equipment, which occupies 40 percent of the printing service outsourcing market for China’s life insurance industry, within 6 days. The Business Park has created a series of miracles in seeking investment.

The financial crisis caused a surge in mergers among international banks, enabling newborn domestic service outsourcing enterprises to keep up with countries like India and service outsourcing regions that have long established service outsourcing businesses. Mergers among banks in Europe and the US will result in the outsourcing of many bank businesses. Meanwhile, domestic financial institutions that have now only 20 percent of their businesses outsourced will join the international trend, leading to the creation of a huge financial outsourcing market. Quickly seizing this opportunity, the Business Park, using its own advantages, accelerated the introduction of leading financial BPO enterprises, and created a transfer service to hasten the normal operation of enterprises they had invited with the aim of occupying the market quicker. Today, the Business Park’s Asia-Pacific Plaza has become the “incubator” of the financial BPO industrial base. The building is home to more than 30 upstream and downstream enterprises all within the financial service outsourcing industry, such as France-based Capgemini, China Data Group, and Yuanyang Data. By creating the transfer service for service outsourcing enterprises, the Business Park has not only formed high, medium, and low-end financial BPO industry chains, it has carved out the divided fields of service outsourcing, jointly baking a “cake” of financial service outsourcing and successfully developing this “Blue Ocean” market.

Financial BPO has become the main force in the service outsourcing base of the Business Park. Centrin Data Systems, China's biggest professional data center with the highest usage levels, will build East China’s largest data processing center in the Business Park. China Data Group, China’s largest financial BPO enterprise with the most complete service chains, has already located itself in the Business Park, and by the end of the year, will employ 3,000 people. In addition, a large number of service outsourcing projects, including BJB, Dianfeng Software, Xinyuan-Zhangjiang, have entered the Business Park and have formed the initial stages of a service outsourcing industry cluster. Service outsourcing, especially the financial BPO industry, has become the most promising and cluster-advantageous industry of the Business Park.

Although the domestic and foreign environment is currently very complicated, the world’s economy and society will not stop progressing. Encountering this rare historical opportunity for restructuring, upgrading, reforming and reviving, the Business Park has the qualification, ability, and confidence to convert crisis into opportunity. In the coming years, the Business Park will form a financial BPO industry chain that is compatible with high, medium, and low industries, with an industry output value of 50 billion yuan. It will form a knowledge and technology-intensive financial service outsourcing industry base with financial BPO as the pioneer that raises high the flag of the city’s modern service industry.

Reporter: Yao Xiaoyan    Source: Kunshan Daily Online