China will strive to become a major base for international service outsourcing, said Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi in Xiamen Friday.

Service outsourcing will become a new area of foreign investment for the country, said Wu at the 2006 International Investment Forum held in Xiamen, east China's Fujian Province.

China will encourage multinationals to outsource services from China, she said.

China is already a favorite choice for multinationals' overseas research and development (R&D) and could build on that to provide them with a range of outsourced services, Wu quote a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development as saying.

More than four million students graduate from college every year in China, providing a huge talent pool for high-end industry service outsourcing, said the vice premier.

China's objectives for the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010) are to lower energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20 percent and also to boost GDP per capita to double the 2000 level.

As a vast developing nation, China faces an array of challenges in fulfilling the goal, said Wu.

As China seeks to restructure its industry, the service sector, service outsourcing, high-end manufacturing and R&D become increasingly attractive, said Wu.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2006)