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China's Offshore Service Outsourcing Contracts Up 4% in First 8 Months, R&D and Maintenance Services Lead Growth
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According to the latest data from China's Ministry of Commerce, the country's service outsourcing industry developed steadily in the first eight months of the year. Total service outsourcing contracts signed by Chinese enterprises reached 1.28524 trillion yuan, with offshore service outsourcing contracts rising 4% year-on-year to 855.18 billion yuan. Offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) execution value grew 8.3%, driven by strong performance in maintenance services (up 8.8%) and R&D services (up 10.8%). The report notes a structural shift toward digital, intelligent, and high-value-added services, aligning with a December 2025 policy plan to foster globally competitive outsourcing firms by 2030. The top three offshore outsourcing sources were the US, Hong Kong, and Singapore, accounting for 53.2% of total offshore execution. Service outsourcing employed 17.898 million people as of August, with 65.7% holding a university degree or higher.
Source report
By Liu Qianwen | Changjiang Business Daily
Recent data from the Ministry of Commerce shows that China's service outsourcing industry maintained steady development in the first eight months of the year, with notable growth in maintenance and repair services as well as research and development (R&D) services.
Overall Contract Value and Growth
From January to August, Chinese enterprises signed service outsourcing contracts worth a total of 1,285.24 billion yuan. Among these, offshore service outsourcing contracts saw a year-on-year increase of 4%.
In terms of execution value, total service outsourcing reached 929.49 billion yuan. Offshore service outsourcing execution value stood at 572.86 billion yuan, down 6.5% year-on-year.
Business Structure Highlights
- Offshore Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) execution value: 233.28 billion yuan, down 8.4% year-on-year
- Offshore Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) execution value: 121.89 billion yuan, up 8.3% year-on-year
- Offshore Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) execution value: 217.69 billion yuan, down 11.3% year-on-year
Within this structure, maintenance and repair services reached 41.05 billion yuan, up 8.8%, while R&D services reached 74.79 billion yuan, up 10.8%.
Industry Transformation and Policy Support
This shift in business structure aligns with China's broader push to upgrade service outsourcing toward digitalization, intelligence, and higher value-added sectors.
In December 2025, six ministries including the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the Action Plan for Promoting High-Quality Development of Service Outsourcing, which set a target to cultivate a number of internationally competitive service outsourcing enterprises by 2030, establish several innovation-driven clusters with distinctive industrial advantages, and further enhance the digital, intelligent, green, and integrated development of the sector.
According to the China Digital Services and Service Outsourcing Development Report (2026) released in June 2026, over the past 20 years, China's service outsourcing contract execution value has grown from 1.38 billion USD to 303.24 billion USD. The number of enterprises has increased from approximately 500 to over 90,000, and the workforce has expanded from fewer than 60,000 to 17.655 million. The report notes that China's service outsourcing is accelerating its shift from cost-driven to technology- and value-driven growth. The rise of artificial intelligence is also fostering new outsourcing areas such as computing power services, model deployment, data governance, and industry-specific intelligent solutions.
Employment and Workforce
As of the end of August, the service outsourcing industry had employed a cumulative total of 17.898 million people, of whom 11.767 million (65.7%) held a college degree or higher.
Key Source Markets
The top three offshore service outsourcing sources for China in the first eight months were:
- United States: 116.37 billion yuan
- Hong Kong, China: 108.31 billion yuan
- Singapore: 80.36 billion yuan
These three markets together accounted for 53.2% of China's total offshore service outsourcing execution value.
During the same period, China undertook offshore service outsourcing from RCEP member countries worth 162.7 billion yuan, and from Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner countries worth 188.07 billion yuan.
Regional Distribution
The industry remains highly concentrated in key urban centers. The 37 national service outsourcing demonstration cities collectively handled 512.36 billion yuan in offshore execution value, accounting for 89.4% of the national total.
- Yangtze River Delta region: 275.03 billion yuan, down 14.9% year-on-year
- Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region: 73.79 billion yuan, up 10.9% year-on-year
This indicates a divergence in development trends across different regions.
Enterprise Ownership
- Domestic enterprises: Offshore execution value of 281.26 billion yuan, accounting for 49.1% of the national total
- Foreign-invested enterprises: Offshore execution value of 291.6 billion yuan, accounting for 50.9%
Image credit: Visual China Editor: ZB
Source
长江商报Eastern
Part of this Story
China's service outsourcing contracts hit 1.28 trillion yuan in first eight months of 2024