The Chinese government is to develop 10 outsourcing base cities by 2010 in an effort to build up the country's outsourcing services, said a senior official with Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

Assistant Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying said the scheme would encourage 100 multinationals to shift offshore outsourcing services to China and foster 1,000 large and medium-sized service outsourcing enterprises.

The first base cities would be Shanghai, Dalian, Xi'an, Shenzhen and Chengdu.

The government is aiming for a fourfold increase in its service outsourcing export volume during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010).

"The MOC is to channel social resources into innovation-oriented enterprises, and support policies will focus on enterprises rather than export products," said Fu.

He estimated this year's foreign trade volume would exceed US$1.7 trillion.

The global service outsourcing market stands at between 300 billion and US$500 billion. The market is expected to reach US$1 trillion in 2008.

In 2005, China's exports of service outsourcing were worth US$900 million.

A report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said China was already a favorite choice for multinationals' research and development and could build on that to provide a range of outsourced services.

(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2006)