CHINA'S first service center focusing on development of the multibillion-dollar outsourcing industry opened yesterday in the Shanghai Pudong Software Park.

The Shanghai Outsourcing Promotion Center was created to give assistance to companies that subcontract with outside businesses to provide services, such as banks using telephone call centers to handle consumer-related business.

Ceremonies marking the event were held in Beijing, attended by top officials from the commerce ministry and Shanghai government.

The new center has already signed partnership agreements with India-based Infosys, the Shanghai Foreign Service Co and Shanghai Hyron Software Co.

China's outsourcing industry was valued at about US$61.3 billion last year, up 37 percent from 2011. Revenue is expected to hit US$85 billion in 2015.

Still, China's industry accounts for under 10 percent of the global outsourcing industry, according to International Data Corp, a US-based research firm.

More than 70 percent of outsourcing contracts in China are from overseas markets, according to government officials.

The center aims to narrow the gap between China and other outsourcing countries.

The center will offer the latest in software and information technology services, said Ma Xuejie, vice director of the commerce commission of the Pudong New Area.