Shanghai maintains support to outsourcing sector

Shanghai is on the track to further develop its outsourcing industry as a key step of the city's economic restructuring to bolster the services sector, government officials said at an industry forum today.

Shanghai's outsourcing industry revenue will keep an annual growth rate of 20 percent and is expected to reach 600 billion yuan (US$95.2 billion) by 2015, said Fu Xinhua, vice chairman of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization.

Software services industry will contribute about 40 percent of the overall industry size of information technology, Fu told the 10th Global IT Outsourcing Forum in Shanghai.

China is studying plans to extend existing favorable policies and work on new stimulus measures as well as step up intellectual property rights protection to boost the industry, said Wan Lianpo, vice director of the Department of Trade in Services and Commercial Services at the Ministry of Commerce.

The city will also continue its tax concession policies and fiscal funding to boost the industry sector, according to Gu Jun, vice chairman of Shanghai Commission of Commerce.

Many outsourcing companies are expanding their businesses to include one-stop software development solutions, said He Jifeng, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and president of the Software Engineering Institute of East China Normal University.