From January to September, Xiamen companies undertook actual service outsourcing amounting to 26.49 billion yuan ($3.65 billion), an increase of 45.2 percent year-on-year, which was 32.6 percentage points higher than the national average.

The contracted service outsourcing amounted to 45.92 billion yuan during the same period, up 20.5 percent year-on-year.

Of which, the actual offshore service outsourcing amounted to 14.54 billion yuan, up 33.4 percent year-on-year, which was 23.7 percentage points higher than the national average.

Three major businesses achieved rapid growth. The actual offshore service outsourcing in information technology outsourcing, business process outsourcing, and knowledge process outsourcing grew 29 percent, 46.7 percent, and 7.1 percent, respectively, during the same period.

In the first nine months, the actual offshore service outsourcing undertaken by Xiamen companies from the United States, the European Union, and Hong Kong saw an increase of 22.9 percent, 89.7 percent, and 27.6 percent, respectively, and accounted for 75.3 percent of the city’s total actual offshore service outsourcing.

In addition, the actual offshore service outsourcing undertaken by private companies, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan-invested companies, and foreign invested companies increased 7.2 percent, 14.3 percent, and 12.4 percent year-on-year, respectively.

As of the end of September, the service outsourcing industry had employed a total of 230,200 people, 58.37 percent of which have a university degree or above.