(Yicai Global) Sept. 13 –- China's service outsourcing industry now boasts a greater concentration of highly-educated talent compared to any other sector in the country and can expect to enter a golden era of development over the next 10 years, Xian Guoyi, head of service trade at the nation's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), said in a press briefing on Sept. 12.

Service outsourcing is the provision of professional services to clients through contracts.

China's outsourcing service sector had an average annual growth rate of 54 percent between 2006 and 2016, going from USD1.38 billion in market size to USD106.46 billion, Xian said. The number of service outsourcing companies increased from 500 to about 40,000 over the same period. Of the sector's nine million employees, 5.5 million hold at least a bachelor's degree.

China now ranks second in the industry's global market, with the market share of China's offshore operations rising from less than 1 percent in 2006 to 33 percent in 2016. China switched focus away from Japan during the period and expanded into about 200 countries in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Western Asia and North Africa.