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Nanjing to be a world leader in outsourcing

By Zhao Tingting (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-05-26 15:32

The third China International Service Outsourcing Cooperation Conference will be held in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, on June 11-12, 2010.

It is the third time that Nanjing has been chosen as the host city of the event.

Nanjing's service outsourcing industry has been booming in recent years and its total contract value hit $2.21 billion in 2009, nearly three times of that in 2008, said Li Lijing, director with the Nanjing Commerce Bureau.

Nanjing, one of China's 20 Model Cities of Outsourcing Service, has established five national-level demonstration bases and two provincial-level ones for the industry.

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Each of the five national-level demonstration bases saw service outsourcing contracts exceeding $200 million in 2009. Jiangning economic development zone, one of the five, reported $458 million in contracts last year, accounting for 21 percent of Nanjing's total.

The industry has developed rapidly over the world. Some reports predicte that the global IT outsourcing market will grow to $1 trillion by 2012 and China's IT outsourcing market will reach $70-90 billion, according to Li.

The huge market space has attracted cities in eastern, central and western regions, viewing it as an opportunity for further opening up, according to Li. China's State Council, or cabinet, urged Chinese enterprises to conduct international service outsourcing projects and improve the nation's industry development in a government report in 2007.

"I believe that Nanjing's service outsourcing industry may make blowout progress in next two or three years with active boosts, becoming a pillar industry of the city," Li said.

According to a blueprint for the future of the industry, by 2015 Nanjing will become a world famous service outsourcing base hitting 70 billion yuan with 250,000 employees.

In order to realize these goals, the government will improve its policies, and make it more integrated with international conventions, Li said.

Special funds, both from the national and provincial level budgets, will be assigned to support development, especially for overseas market exploration, talents introduction and training.

"We will speed up the construction of Nanjing's service outsourcing industry demonstration bases and its supporting facilities. Green export channel and public service websites will also be built," Li added.

With 53 universities and colleges, Nanjing can produce more than 100,000 graduates every year, among them over 10,000 major in information technology.

The city also has a well developed telecommunication network and transportation system, which are very important for service outsourcing business.

In 2009, the government allocated 25 million yuan worth of subsidies to the service outsourcing sector and trained more than 30,000 people.

Through the years, Nanjing has seen many of its service outsourcing companies grow into well-recognized brands. As many as 11 software companies, including Linkage Technology Co Ltd and ZTE Soft, have been chosen as China’s key software enterprises in 2009.