The world is undergoing an unprecedented digital transformation. Changes in the business and technical spaces are accelerating at an exponential rate. When you combine this with the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, its subsequent lockdown, and the Great Resignation, many governments and businesses are finding themselves vulnerable to a critical digital skills gap. Surviving, and hopefully thriving, with all this requires adapting to this new reality.
Until organizations can cultivate these skills internally, outsourcing digital services remains the most reliable option to ensure they can access the support they need. These four key reasons show why China is poised to become the key location for IT outsourcing support:
1. Extensive Government Investment
China is quickly becoming the dominant power in digital services, products, and infrastructure. This has been driven by forward-thinking government programs designed to push China’s digital sector ahead at breakneck speed. Three policies are making the most difference for companies looking to utilize China’s digital skills:
- China’s Digital Silk Road initiative was designed to disrupt the global monopoly on data traffic and tech innovation currently enjoyed by U.S. corporations such as Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), and Amazon. The result will be a dramatically different digital environment for companies inside and outside of China.
- The Made in China and China Standards 2035 initiatives are leveraging the country’s position as the world’s largest manufacturer of electronic goods to create new benchmarks for product quality.
- A $1.4 trillion investment was announced in 2020 to support public digital infrastructure. For companies looking to China as a location for digital outsourcing, this infrastructure will make it far easier to seamlessly utilize domestic talent.
Alongside these initiatives, investments into education and eCommerce mean that China is already ideally placed to provide the needed IT support services that organizations are looking to outsource.
2. Growing and Highly Educated Talent Pool
China has one of the largest graduate populations in the world, with more than 9 million graduates from Chinese universities in 2021 alone. Moreover, China has invested heavily into improving the quality of education that it can offer students with 24 of its 2,700+ universities and colleges now ranking in the top 200 lists for schools globally.
The country shows no signs of slowing down either with a 2021 CSET paper from Georgetown University revealing that STEM doctoral programs have seen a meteoric rise. Between 2016 and 2019, the number of students entering these programs in China increased by 40%, and by 2025, China is expected to outnumber the U.S. in domestic STEM PhD graduates by 3 to 1.
3. Blossoming IT Sector
China has a clear and comprehensive vision of its future and position in the digital world. While education is a crucial first step to achieving it, creating the job opportunities to utilize that education is just as important.
As of 2022, China’s IT market size was $216 billion with more than 23,000 active IT businesses registered in the country employing nearly 2 million people. Total eCommerce revenues this year are expected to exceed a trillion dollars through 2022 and it is the largest consumer of semiconductors (a crucial component for digital hardware and computing) in the Asia Pacific region.
4. Robust and Connected Economy
China boasts the second-largest economy in the world, only surpassed by the United States, and despite being the epicenter of the coronavirus, Chinese GDP grew by 8.1% between 2020 and 2021 – an improvement of $3 trillion.
During the same period, internet penetration reached an all-time high, increasing by 10% to connect 65.2% of the population or more than 900 million people.
Tek Experts in Dalian
Dalian is one of the fastest-growing tech hubs in China. The high-tech district covers a 30km stretch of the island which itself is already a center for communications and IT in the country.
Our offices are situated in the heart of this district with easy access to tram, train, and MTR stations as well as local amenities including restaurants, parks, and schools.
This location embeds us within a highly skilled talent pool with long-established proficiency in Mandarin, English, Japanese, and Korean.
The China Standard Time zone and access to talent with various language capabilities means that APAC-based service volumes can be covered by our teams in Dalian.
Most companies looking to outsource their IT support for customers around the world need to rely on multiple locations across different time zones. Read our latest article outlining 7 important locations for IT services and support to see how you can build a global presence to better serve your customers.
