According to the survey of comprehensive evaluation of 31 service outsourcing demonstration cities in 2019 and 2020 conducted earlier this year by nine the ministries and commissions including the Ministry of Commerce, Changchun’s ranking was significantly improved compared with previous years. 

In 2019, Changchun’s ranking rose from 22nd to 15th, the third among the 15 demonstration cities in the “central and western regions and Northeast China”, but the first among Northeast China’s five cities (the other four cities are Shenyang, Harbin, Dalian and Daqing). 

In 2020, Changchun ranked 17th, the third among the 15 demonstration cities in the “central and western regions and Northeast China”, but still the first among the five cities in Northeast China. 

In 2020, the contractual amount of service outsourcing enterprises in the city reached USD1.46 billion, up 180.5%, ranking the third among the 31 demonstration cities in China. The implementation value was USD150 million, up 33.3% year on year, three times higher than the average level of national demonstration cities, ranking the sixth among national demonstration cities. 

From 2008 to 2020, the number of service outsourcing enterprises increased from 1 to 224 in Changchun. The total amount of offshore businesses of service outsourcing increased from USD4900 to USD112 million. 

Over the past 13 years, Changchun has transformed talent advantages into industrial advantages for the leap-forward development of service outsourcing industry. 

In February 2018, the Framework Agreement of the Ministry of Commerce and the People’s Government of Jilin Province on Establishing a Ministerial and Provincial Cooperation Mechanism, a fruit of cooperation between the Ministry of Commerce and Jilin Province, was signed. 

To implement the requirement of “supporting the development of service outsourcing industry” stipulated in the framework agreement, Changchun has taken the initiative to seek cooperation with the think tank of the Ministry of Commerce. 

In July 2018, the Framework Agreement on Building Service Outsourcing Research Base in Changchun was signed by the Service Outsourcing Research Center of the Ministry of Commerce, Jilin Provincial Department of Commerce, Changchun Municipal Bureau of Commerce and the Administrative of the Changchun Hi-tech Industry Development Zone. 

After the establishment of the research base, the Global (Changchun) Manufacturing Service Outsourcing Summit, the first of its kind themed on manufacturing service outsourcing in the world, was designed with the efforts made by all sides involved. 

In July 2019, the 1st Global (Changchun) Manufacturing Service Outsourcing Summit was held in the Nanhu Hotel, which was attended by 200 people.  

In 2020, thanks to the joint efforts in overcoming the impact of the epidemic, the 2nd Global (Changchun) Manufacturing Service Outsourcing Summit was held successfully, with 8 manufacturing service outsourcing cooperation projects signed at the meeting. 

The size of the third edition, which was opened on July 20 this year, increased to 300 people, with great innovations made in forum setting and publicity, and a record high of 13 signed projects. 

Over the past years, the research base has played a positive role in such aspects as promoting the comprehensive evaluation and quality improvement of the city’s construction of a service outsourcing demonstration city, holding the Global (Changchun) Manufacturing Service Outsourcing Summit, expanding the influence of the city’s service outsourcing, and exploring a new development path for the service outsourcing of the city. 

Confronted with the challenging epidemic conditions at home and abroad in 2020, the service outsourcing industry of the city managed to have expanded its size, optimized its structure, and thus achieved rapid development. 

The service outsourcing of Changchun City ranks in top positions in terms of its growth rate and ability to absorb employment. By the end of 2020, 63.5% of the people got employed in the city’s service outsourcing were holders of associate degrees or above, demonstrating an effective role in promoting the employment of graduates from higher learning institutions. 

The huge talent advantage has made the service outsourcing industry of Changchun City more highlighted with the features of transformation, upgrading and high-quality development, thereby further facilitating the high-quality development of traditional advantageous manufacturing industries such as automobile, rail transit and biomedicine. In 2020, more was invested in the research, development and design of service outsourcing, and new information technologies such as 5G, cloud computing, big data, Internet of things and AI were widely applied to improve the comprehensive competency of whole-process service for manufacturing customers. The pattern service outsourcing led by knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) was further consolidated. The implementation value of KPO undertaken by the city’s service outsourcing enterprises reached USD$100 million, a year-on-year increase of 41.1%, or 7.8 percentage points higher than the growth rate of implemented amount of service outsourcing. 

Relying on a strong manufacturing foundation, Changchun has vigorously promoted the in-depth integrated development of service outsourcing and advanced manufacturing, and encouraged service outsourcing enterprises to use new information technologies to improve the level of digitization, intelligence, service and platform of manufacturing enterprises while guiding manufacturing enterprises to expand and extend to front-end research, development and design, and back-end online marketing, financial leasing, inspection and testing and other service procedures, which in turn has explored a number of typical service-oriented manufacturing enterprises. 

CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles, FAW and other big manufacturing enterprises have accelerated the transformation to service-oriented manufacturing enterprises, gradually developed into comprehensive solution providers integrating research and development, manufacturing, technical standard formulation and after-sale service, thereby becoming the mainstay of the service outsourcing industry of Changchun City. 

In 2020, 61 new service outsourcing enterprises were added, including a batch of service outsourcing enterprises with outstanding businesses and strong driving abilities such as AVE Point, and SUNAO. 

emerging markets consolidate the development pattern of offshore business. In 2020, offshore service outsourcing was hard hit by the epidemic. 

Changchun adopted practical measures to organize enterprises to participate in online international exhibitions, with financial assistance provided to help enterprises explore international markets, coordinate to solve contract implementation difficulties, which in turn consolidated the pattern of offshore business leading the development of the industry. 

Remarkable achievements have been made in offshore market expansion. In 2020, the city’s offshore service outsourcing reached out to 42 countries and regions around the world, an increase of 16 from the record of 2019. And offshore business was made possible in Congo, Israel, Saudi Arabia, India, etc. The implementation value of undertaking service outsourcing business in Congo was 31.85 million US dollars, 17.9% more than that in the United States, becoming the largest source of offshore service outsourcing business in Changchun City. 

The breadth and width of the Belt and Road Initiative have been further improved. In 2020, 149 enterprises were organized to participate in the China International Trade Service Fair online or offline, and 23 projects related to big data, cloud service, new energy, information technology, intelligent manufacturing, medicine and medical equipment, transportation and tourism were promoted. The export of CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles light rail trains to Tel Aviv, Israel, was selected as “global service demonstration project”. 

In 2020, Changchun maintained service outsourcing relations with 10 plus countries included in the Belt and Road Initiative, with a total implementation vale of 19.92 million US dollars, accounting for 17.4% of the total. 

With service outsourcing as one industry for new breakthroughs, Changchun, a famous city of science, education and culture, is now walking at fast speed on a development road of transforming talent advantages into industrial advantages.