What economic theories can be used to analyze the development status of China's service outsourcing industry, and how to analyze it?

Abstract: In the new round of global industrial transfer, software service outsourcing has become a new industrial form and service trade model, and it has developed rapidly. As an important driving factor of the new round of industrial transfer, international software service outsourcing provides a rare opportunity for China to seek the development of service industry. On the basis of analyzing the present situation and existing problems of software service outsourcing in China, this paper discusses the opportunities and challenges faced by China in undertaking international software service outsourcing, and puts forward corresponding policy suggestions. (Zhongjing comments on Beijing) Throughout the history of industrial development, * * * has experienced three "globalization waves". The essence of the first wave of globalization is "market globalization", that is, expanding the market through international trade, and a large number of enterprises are attracted by the broad prospects of new markets and expand overseas. The second wave of globalization occurred 50 years ago and continues to this day. Its essence is "production globalization", that is, large multinational enterprises set up manufacturing factories in low-wage countries and began to transfer blue-collar jobs on a large scale. China became the main beneficiary of this transfer after 1980s, and won the reputation of "world factory" with indisputable advantages. Now the third wave of globalization, namely "service globalization", is coming to us. Its essence is that with the widespread popularization of Internet and telecommunication technology, the service industry is undergoing a change similar to that of manufacturing industry: from areas with high production costs to areas with low costs, a large number of white-collar jobs with service and knowledge are also shifting.

The current financial crisis has brought about worldwide industrial restructuring, and software service outsourcing has increasingly become an important part of service trade, a new trend of international industrial transfer, and a brand-new industry with great development prospects. It has brought new opportunities for the development of China, that is, actively undertaking international software service outsourcing business, vigorously developing software service outsourcing industry, cultivating international competitiveness, optimizing economic structure and changing foreign trade growth mode, which are of great significance to China, which started late in this field.

First, the new pattern of global software service outsourcing industry development

Software and information service industry is a brand-new industrial form that best meets the requirements of new industrialization. As a new business model, software service outsourcing has developed rapidly in recent years. With the adjustment of world industrial structure and the vigorous development and wide application of information technology, software service outsourcing has become a new growth point of global economy and an important force to promote the development of software and information service industry.

(1) Software and information service outsourcing has developed rapidly, and the transaction scale has been expanding.

According to statistics, the global software and information service market continues to grow. In 2007, the market scale of software and information services has reached 813.9 billion US dollars, of which software services reached117.6 billion US dollars. In 2008, the global offshore service market exceeded 680 billion US dollars, and the global information technology outsourcing (ITO) offshore outsourcing business mainly focused on software service outsourcing, accounting for 42. 1%, especially software development and maintenance. The largest offshore business of global business process outsourcing (BPO) is customer service, and the offshore growth rate of financial accounting business is the slowest.

With the development of global offshore service market, there are more and more outsourcing jobs. At present, the number of white-collar jobs flowing to countries with lower labor costs has increased dramatically. In the past three years, about 400,000 white-collar service jobs in the United States have been transferred overseas. Software and information service outsourcing industry has become a pillar industry in developed countries, and its position in global economic development and international competition is also increasing. At present, more and more enterprises, especially powerful enterprises, are outsourcing productive software services, making it a new economic growth point.

(2) The intellectual added value of software and information service outsourcing has improved and become the main force of high-end employment.

Developing software service outsourcing is a strategic choice to participate in economic globalization in the new period. Software service outsourcing belongs to the category of high-end service industry, which is a "green industry" with zero pollution, high knowledge content, low resource consumption and high added value, and can accelerate the development and upgrading of service industry. Practice shows that software service outsourcing has gradually become an important breakthrough to promote the high-end development of modern service industry, promote the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure and accelerate the transformation of economic growth mode.

Software and information service outsourcing has improved the technical knowledge needed for outsourcing, and global knowledge-based software service outsourcing has emerged. Many companies not only transfer low-end services such as data entry and document management, but also outsource high-tech and value-added services such as risk management, financial analysis and research and development. Software and information outsourcing has gradually developed from operational outsourcing to intelligent outsourcing, and the proportion of technology and knowledge is getting higher and higher. The level of knowledge and technology required for software service outsourcing is also constantly improving, and the simple relationship between contractors and suppliers has developed into a new strategic partnership. At present, software service outsourcing is not limited to developed countries and some big companies. Many developing countries, some small and medium-sized enterprises and even individuals outsource some of their businesses in order to reduce costs, and the scope of outsourcing customers is constantly expanding. At the same time, there are more and more outsourcing countries, and some developing countries have participated in international software service outsourcing, such as India, China, Russia, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Venezuela and Bangladesh. The global outsourcing market is concentrated in countries such as India and Ireland. 800/0 of India's software industry's revenue comes from the outsourcing of software and information services in the United States, while most of the European market is taken over by Ireland. With the acceleration of global industrial transfer, China, Philippine and Russian are becoming new signing forces. In 2008, the total number of employees engaged in information and software outsourcing in the world has reached 654.38+0.4 billion.

(3) designing R&D services for offshore developing countries.

With the continuous decline in the number of working-age laborers in some developed countries, the competition and profit pressure faced by various industries are increasing. Software service outsourcing and offshoring are becoming an important means for multinational enterprises to globally deploy, cope with competition and enhance their international competitiveness. At the same time, new forms and opportunities of software service outsourcing and offshoring emerge one after another, and IT infrastructure services and design and development services will become the new driving force for the sustained and rapid development of offshoring. With the continuous reduction of communication costs and the continuous improvement of telecommunications infrastructure, the proportion of personnel costs in IT infrastructure operation is increasing. Leading multinational companies have begun to outsource information technology infrastructure services around the world, and outsourcing R&D services to developing countries is becoming another emerging trend. Driven by low-cost labor, talent pool and proximity to local markets and offshore production sites, multinational companies are transferring their design and R&D to Eastern Europe, India and China. For the late-developing countries, the development of offshore outsourcing services will promote the transformation of key sectors and industries of the national economy, and create a virtuous circle of independent innovation through the accumulation of talents, knowledge and infrastructure. By introducing leading international software service outsourcing suppliers and customers, and actively cooperating with them, it can help developing countries to improve the technology, management and independent innovation capabilities of enterprises, cultivate a group of high-quality labor and talents, and constantly promote industrial innovation and scientific and technological progress.

Second, the opportunities and challenges faced by China's software service outsourcing industry

Following the global transfer of manufacturing industry in the last century, software service outsourcing and offshoring have become an irreversible new round of global industrial revolution and industrial transfer trend. Faced with such a global trend, China is faced with historic choices and opportunities. It needs to base itself on its unique advantages, seize emerging opportunities, face challenges actively and achieve rapid development by leaps and bounds.

(A) the opportunities faced by China's software service outsourcing industry

Global software service outsourcing business began in the 1980s and developed rapidly after the mid-1990s. In the new century, global software service outsourcing will continue to maintain the momentum of rapid development. Although China's software service outsourcing started late, there is a lot of room for future development. Roland berger International Management Consulting Company pointed out that although China's comprehensive strength in undertaking software service outsourcing is relatively inferior to that of India and Ireland, China, with its unique advantages, is becoming a powerful rival of India and is recognized as a new outsourcing center.

The current financial crisis has led to a worldwide economic recession. In this new economic situation, the primary task of the first developing country is to reduce costs, and the answer to how to reduce costs is service outsourcing. In the long run, outsourcing can not only reduce costs, but also help to improve the degree of specialization of services and correspondingly improve the effectiveness of costs. In this way, the more economic downturn, survival becomes a test, the greater the demand for outsourcing. For example, the output value and scale of financial services will continue to expand, and the cost savings brought by offshore process outsourcing in the financial industry can reach 40%-60%.

China has a large number of high-quality and low-cost professional and technical personnel. According to statistics, in 2003, colleges and universities in China trained about 6,543,800 computer software professionals, an increase of 57.3% over 2002, and 264,000 software and related graduates. The monthly salary of domestic engineers is only $500, that of India is $700 and that of the United States is as high as $4,000. The IT labor cost in China is only 70% of that in India and 1/8 in the United States. American Business Weekly believes that China's low-cost and talented software technicians are a major advantage of IT software service outsourcing. The source power of American enterprise software service outsourcing industry is to obtain the lowest cost and the maximum profit through outsourcing. Professor Liu Zunyi of Stanford University pointed out that outsourcing can help American enterprises reduce costs and ensure their survival and further development. Without outsourcing, many companies like Nike would have a hard time surviving.

China has unique advantages in infrastructure, domestic market, foreign investment and similarity of language and culture with North Asia. Taking infrastructure as an example, China has a world-class telecommunications infrastructure, which can achieve 99.98% network connectivity and provide stable and uninterrupted dual power supply for major software bases. About 150 civil airports connect most first-and second-class cities, and more than 30 cities have international airports and international direct flights. After more than 20 years of rapid economic development, China has formed a complete industry and service system, and the investment environment, especially the soft environment, has been continuously improved. The hosting of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 20 10 Shanghai World Expo enabled China enterprises to undertake service outsourcing on a large scale. China has a good foundation of humanities connection, with more than 2 million talents from Japan and South Korea, which is remarkably similar to the language and culture in North Asia. At present, China, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dalian, Hangzhou and other major cities have formed regional outsourcing centers, which have developed particularly rapidly in opening up the Japanese software service outsourcing market, initially forming a backbone enterprise group for software export development to Japan. CCID thinks that by 20 10, the outsourcing market in China will reach 7 billion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 50.2%.

In order to seize the rare development opportunity in time, the China Municipal Government promoted the implementation of the "Thousands of Projects" and launched the corresponding talent training plan, encouraging software service outsourcing enterprises to obtain international certification, so as to vigorously promote the software service outsourcing enterprises in China to become stronger and bigger as soon as possible. Specifically, it includes: arranging special funds for software service outsourcing training, supporting college students to increase their professional knowledge and skills in software service outsourcing, encouraging software service outsourcing enterprises to create new jobs for college students, and focusing on training fresh college graduates and unemployed college graduates and new employees in software service outsourcing enterprises; Give certain rewards to software service outsourcing enterprises that meet the requirements and obtain industry international certification, and take effective measures to support the maintenance and upgrading of their international certification; Providing policy loans and related services for the development of software service outsourcing enterprises; Support software service outsourcing enterprises to vigorously explore the international market and undertake international (offshore) software service outsourcing business.

(B) The challenges faced by the software service outsourcing industry in China

In recent years, China's software service outsourcing has grown from scratch, the scale has been expanding, and the fields have been gradually broadened. Its business scope mainly involves electronic information industry, producer service industry and cultural and creative industry, and its customers include Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States. The business volume of software service outsourcing is increasing, but there are still many problems.

First of all, the structure of human resources is unreasonable. The existing human resources structure in China presents a pyramid shape, that is, there is a shortage of high-end talents engaged in software service outsourcing, software talents with strong comprehensive ability and application ability, and intermediate technical talents, while the number of low-end general software talents at the bottom of the pyramid with low technical requirements is sufficient. In fact, the current demand for human resources structure in the development of software service outsourcing presents a "rugby" shape, and the demand for intermediate technical talents is huge, further exposing the serious inconsistency between supply and demand of human resources in China; At the same time, compared with Indians whose mother tongue is English, the English level of relevant staff in China is low and they lack corresponding language advantages. In addition, due to cultural differences, China employees lack understanding of western business concepts.

Secondly, the international market development ability is low. The competition of international software service outsourcing is becoming increasingly fierce. Due to the influence of language, marketing ability and capital, China software outsourcing enterprises lack a group of professionals who are familiar with international rules, and their ability to explore the international market is low. Most domestic software enterprises in China do not realize or have the ability to publicize their products and strengths on the international stage, do not attach importance to CMM quality certification, and lack software talents who are familiar with the operation modes and norms of multinational companies. Although many American and European software companies are interested in offshore processing cooperation with China, due to their ignorance of the technology and quality level of China's software industry and China's software companies, piracy is serious, and it is impossible to build trust in China's software companies. The government and industry organizations have not effectively helped enterprises to establish contact with foreign markets and customers in these aspects. On the other hand, the Indian government has taken active measures to create favorable conditions for undertaking software service outsourcing and seize the international outsourcing market. On the one hand, we should adopt an open talent training and mobility policy to create good human resources conditions for undertaking outsourcing; On the other hand, it provides preferential policies and information consulting services for enterprises, which directly promotes the rapid development of Indian software service outsourcing exports. Undertaking software service outsourcing has become the focus of competition among countries, especially developing countries. However, China's software service outsourcing enterprises have not yet established a strict management system, lack a perfect R&D and marketing network, and the ability of technicians to communicate with customers is relatively weak, which greatly affects China's enterprises to undertake international software service outsourcing.

In addition, the domestic market lacks financing channels. The software industry is a high-risk and high-return industry, and its growth cannot be separated from sufficient and effective funds, so venture capital is particularly important for software outsourcing. The current venture capital market in China is not mature, and most software enterprises are private enterprises. The serious lack of credit leads to financing difficulties, and the venture capital invested in the software industry is very limited. The restriction of bank's "loan guarantee mortgage" makes it difficult for many software companies to apply for loans because they don't have enough capital or guarantee. The lack of funds directly leads to the failure of small enterprises to develop or be eliminated prematurely. In recent years, although the state has invested some policy funds to support the development of software enterprises, from the actual situation, it has not achieved the expected results. At present, the main source of funds for software enterprises is still the accumulation of their own profits, which makes many enterprises miss the opportunity of development.

Finally, government policies and measures are uncoordinated, and scattered policies are difficult to form agglomeration effect. Software service outsourcing export is a complex system engineering, and the management organization involves many departments such as Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, General Administration of Customs and so on. At present, due to various policies, poor coordination, weak management and low gold content in policies, the export stamina of software service outsourcing in China is seriously insufficient. In addition, industrial agglomeration is a common mode of high-tech industry development, which can produce significant economic effects. Developing industry by industrial park mode can give full play to the integration ability and synergistic effect of various regional resource elements, and pursue a regional development path suitable for the specific characteristics of the region. Software service outsourcing also pays attention to scale effect, but at present, the development layout of software service outsourcing in China is scattered and lacks planning and layout guidance policies; Small-scale enterprises, lack of leading enterprises and famous brands; The ability to undertake and develop large-scale software service outsourcing projects is insufficient, and the agglomeration effect is greatly restricted and affected.

Third, policies and measures to accelerate the development of China's software service outsourcing industry

The rapid growth of global software service outsourcing is both an opportunity and a challenge for China Mining No.1, which puts forward higher requirements for researching, formulating and implementing measures to promote the development of software service outsourcing.

(1) To study and formulate the development plan of software service outsourcing.

Seriously study the industrial advantages and development direction of developing software service outsourcing in China, formulate the development plan of software service outsourcing in combination with the development strategy of China's service industry opening to the outside world and service trade, clearly regard the software service outsourcing industry as the focus of the country to enhance its global competitiveness, formulate clear industrial development goals (such as export and employment goals), and study service promotion policies. First, it is necessary to formulate enterprise standards for software service outsourcing, which are linked with the standards of high-tech enterprises and software enterprises to lay the foundation for policy support. Second, formulate relevant policies to guide multinational companies to invest in China's software service outsourcing, give preferential support to human services and infrastructure, and include software service outsourcing in the encouraged category of foreign-invested enterprises. Third, increase support for export policies of service trade, promote the establishment of national software service outsourcing development fund, and formulate and improve export subsidies, export credit and deactivation insurance policies for service trade. Fourth, further relax conditions, lower standards, include China as a software service outsourcing base city in the pilot reform of foreign exchange management for overseas investment, and encourage enterprises to set up R&D and marketing institutions overseas. Fifth, we should strengthen the research on industrial development trends. Establish or entrust corresponding research institutions, learn from the successful experience and lessons of advanced countries, continuously track, investigate and study the conditions and development of software service outsourcing business in China, conduct pre-research on the policy, law, market, society and technology development problems that may be encountered in industrial development, publish research results, and guide enterprises to make correct decisions.

(2) Increase financial support and improve tax support policies.

Recognized software service outsourcing enterprises can enjoy preferential corporate income tax reduction and exemption; Consider exempting software service outsourcing enterprises from business tax; Moderately reduce personal income tax. Government departments should pool resources, set up special funds to support the software service outsourcing industry, and focus on funding the training of service personnel, the construction of public information service platforms and public technology platforms, and the application for international certification and evaluation.

Strengthen the publicity of the existing software export encouragement policies and give full play to the guiding and supporting role of the policies. Software enterprises export software and import equipment for their own use, and enjoy preferential tax policies in accordance with existing relevant regulations. Led by the finance and taxation department, in conjunction with relevant departments, combined with the export trend and characteristics of software and related information services, continue to study the applicable preferential tax policies. All departments work together to standardize the export mode of software and related information services and simplify management procedures. Temporary imported goods necessary for the export of software and related information services may be postponed to leave the country in accordance with the relevant provisions of the customs.

(3) Strengthen financial support and guidance and improve financial support policies.

All relevant departments continue to increase capital investment in the national software industry base and software export base through existing capital channels, and increase it year by year according to the development of the base. Make full use of the central foreign trade development fund and the national high-tech research and development plan (863 plan), encourage software enterprises to innovate independently, adopt international standards to implement software development process management, and increase support for enterprises to explore the international market and protect overseas intellectual property rights. Encourage national policy banks to provide short-term and medium-term working capital loans for software and information service export projects, and give support according to the characteristics of software enterprises. Policy credit insurance companies are encouraged to provide enterprises with export foreign exchange collection guarantees, commercial account collection services and trade financing facilities under insurance. Increase support for software and related information service enterprises, and allow software and related information service enterprises to retain foreign exchange according to actual business needs.

Form multi-party financing channels and accelerate the integration of software outsourcing industry and financial industry. On the one hand, the venture capital mechanism of software industry is established and encouraged, and the state supports the establishment of venture capital companies and venture capital funds. On the other hand, part of the capital construction funds in the budget will be used for infrastructure construction and industrialization projects in the software industry and the integrated circuit industry, and various development funds will be established, such as the electronic development fund, the 863 Plan and the Torch Plan. By opening GEM and perfecting the exit mechanism of venture capital, it will effectively promote industrial development. For software enterprises, venture capital brings not only capital, but also advanced management, market experience, growth model, strategic partners, international thinking mode and foreign cooperation channels that small and medium-sized software enterprises lack.

(D) the establishment of innovative software service outsourcing talent training model

Software service outsourcing is a knowledge-intensive industry, which needs software professionals with comprehensive quality and practical needs. The urgent task is to combine the actual development of China's software export and software service outsourcing, innovate and improve personnel training methods, encourage social forces to intervene, implement customized training for the needs of different enterprises (such as software development and software service outsourcing) and different markets (such as Europe, America and Japan), strengthen hands-on ability and practical business process training, and improve the quality of personnel training. At present, China is implementing the software college system, and the training direction of software technology colleges (schools) should adapt to the market demand of outsourcing, especially software service outsourcing. In addition, the government will encourage multinational companies with training ability to cooperate with domestic institutions as contractors to carry out targeted business training and recruit people for employment after training; Encourage intermediary organizations such as trade associations to cooperate with training institutions, establish a human resource pool, and build a human resource supply chain for outsourcing services in China.

(5) Accelerate the improvement of the service system in the park.

Software Park is a universal model for the development of software and software service outsourcing in the world. For example, the United States has four software industry bases: Silicon Valley, Utah, Seattle and the eastern region; The Indian software industry has formed a relatively concentrated software enterprise group represented by Bangalore in geographical distribution; South Korea has Dade Science Park; Taiwan Province Province has Hsinchu Software Park and so on. The service system of software park can closely cooperate with the central and local governments to build a platform for the development of software service outsourcing industry and establish a new policy system and a new industrial supporting environment; On this platform, the software park gives full play to the professional ability of enterprises and provides differentiated and professional services, which makes the industrial concentration constantly improve and the brand effect of the software park stand out. Practice has proved that successful park operations at home and abroad follow the basic principles of "marketization, differentiation and enterprise".

Relying on the comparative advantages of the park, based on reasonable industrial positioning, attracting investment around the leading products and their upstream and downstream products, introducing high-end product production technology, expanding the technology chain, building leading industries, extending the industrial chain, realizing industrial splicing faults, filling gaps and adjusting the structure, and forming a complete industrial chain. A relatively complete industrial chain can minimize the cost of industrial cooperation and improve the competitiveness of enterprises. Once the industrial chain is formed, it will inevitably attract more vertical cooperative enterprises to invest in supporting services, thus forming industrial clusters and promoting the virtuous circle and healthy development of the park and regional economy. In addition, the establishment of software parks relies on large enterprises and leading enterprises. Where large enterprises are located, they will become software parks, encouraging supporting enterprises to gather and enjoy consistent preferential policies. We can mobilize domestic software service outsourcing suppliers or software enterprises ready to switch to software service outsourcing business, set up independent intermediaries to develop software service outsourcing and software and information service outsourcing business, and strengthen the construction of service system. Build a public information network platform for software and information service outsourcing and provide corresponding financing support; Formulate differentiated regional software outsourcing promotion policies.

(6) Strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and cultivate an industrial environment conducive to the development of software service outsourcing.

All departments cooperate with each other to promote the credit system construction of software and related information service enterprises, improve the level of enterprise integrity, improve the credit system construction of the industry, and reduce the leakage of intellectual property rights caused by the flow of personnel. Encourage domestic and foreign intermediaries to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, and provide customer credit evaluation services and related information services for software export enterprises in various ways. Continue to actively promote the legalization of software; Encourage software export bases to set up overseas intellectual property information service platforms, support and guide software enterprises to apply for patents, copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property rights overseas, and subsidize application maintenance fees and agency fees.

The software service outsourcing industry requires high intellectual property protection and data security environment. The government should actively explore and build a policy highland to undertake software service outsourcing, and create a good environment from the aspects of market approval, customs supervision, foreign exchange management, fiscal and taxation incentive policies, matching fund guidance, financing support, professional certification, personnel training, and industry management. So as to reduce the transaction cost of software service outsourcing. At the same time, it is necessary to establish a legal system in line with international systems as soon as possible, especially the intellectual property protection law, and accelerate the formation of a system conducive to the creation, protection and application of intellectual property rights. Set up an information platform between the service center for reporting and complaining about the protection of intellectual property rights and relevant law enforcement departments, act in strict accordance with the law, resolutely crack down on all kinds of illegal acts that undermine market credit, and establish a good market environment conducive to the protection of intellectual property rights, important enterprise data and personal information.

Four. conclusion

From the global development trend, the international transfer of software service industry is an irreversible trend. With the introduction of new policies, the promulgation of laws and regulations, the improvement of the education level of China's labor force and the construction of domestic information infrastructure, the transfer of international service industry to China will develop vertically from shallow to deep. However, at present, some factors that our country undertakes the transfer of software service industry seriously restrict the transformation from "Made in China" to "Serving in China". Faced with such problems, China should learn from the valuable experience of other countries, especially Indian, in developing software service outsourcing, and provide effective reference for China to develop software service outsourcing.

In the 20th century, which was dominated by manufacturing industry, China found its place in the wave of globalization by virtue of the cost advantage of human resources. In the new century, with the globalization tide led by software service outsourcing, can China achieve a smooth leap from "Made in China" to "Service in China"? The key lies in: in the diversified international market of software outsourcing, we should build our own brand and produce service products with independent intellectual property rights. While vigorously developing software service outsourcing, we should avoid trade frictions and win a good international environment for China's trade development.