Citizens handle business at Shanghai's Pilot Free Trade Zone Lingang Special Area in east China's Shanghai, May 12, 2023. (Xinhua/Ma Ning)
BEIJING, May 21 (Xinhua) -- China's service outsourcing industry saw robust expansion in the first four months of this year, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.
Chinese firms inked services outsourcing contracts worth a total of nearly 781.43 billion yuan (about 110 billion U.S. dollars) in the four-month period, up 14.4 percent year on year, according to the ministry.
The executed contract value stood at 520.51 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.9 percent.
Of the total, the value of offshore service outsourcing contracts rose 8.6 percent year on year to 419.04 billion yuan.
In the January-April period, the industry welcomed about 301,000 new hires, with 84.7 percent of these individuals holding a university degree or above.
Outsourcing refers to hiring an outside party to carry out services or produce goods typically undertaken by in-house employees.
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