“In the coming five years, China’s outsourcing services will have a compound annual growth rate of 26 percent. China is expected to surpass India as the biggest country for offshore outsourcing,” said Ren Hongbin, Party secretary and vice-president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

According to Ren, China has become an important outsourcer in the world due to its preferential policies, stable social conditions and abundant human resources. The amount of offshore outsourcing executed by China in 2011 came to $23.83 billion with a year-on-year increase of 6.3 percent. It accounted for 23 percent of the global offshore outsourcing market. During the first half of 2012, contract value of China’s international service outsourcing reached $19.39 billion, up 49.8 percent from 2011.

During the twelfth Five-Year Plan period, China’s outsourcing service industry may present four development trends, as follows:

First, cost-oriented service outsourcing industries will shift operations. The international service outsourcing industry will transfer to China and the service outsourcing industry will move from coastal open cities to central and western regions.

Second, attention should be paid to talent, which will become the core element for sustainable development of outsourcing cities, parks and enterprises.

Third, the financial outsourcing market will open up overall.

Fourth, business areas of China’s outsourcing service will expand from ITO (Information Technology Outsourcing) to BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing), which are more technologically advanced and offer increased added value.

Edited by Lin Hong, Zhao Lu and Michael Thai