Source Code China: The New Global Hub of IT (Information Technology) Outsourcing

Chapter 3. China: Your Essential Shore

	China has arrived as a sourcing destination in the global IT services and outsourcing market. Buyers, especially those with operations in China, are beginning to see the value in diversifying their sourcing through Chinese suppliers. A small yet increasingly sophisticated set of Chinese vendors are prepared for global sourcing relationships. And the Chinese export IT services and outsourcing industry is receiving a strong unified boost from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. While competition will remain tough from Indian and “near-shore” providers in multiple geographies, savvy Chinese providers are rapidly finding their paths to market.
	--Jamie Popkin, Group Vice President, Gartner Inc.

As the examples on the preceding pages demonstrate, China did not decide to have an outsourcing industry overnight, nor did it. It was neither the aim of government nor of private industry to begin attracting this type of foreign business or investment to the country. Initially, China was more focused on developing its own hardware and software businesses internally. In its earliest stages, it did not see the value of establishing the country’s name in the outsourcing field, and then devoting educational or industrial resources to competing in that field in a way that was not entirely focused on the domestic industry, especially when success was far from assured.

However, since former leader Deng Xiaoping began the process of reform and openness in 1978, and ...