by Stephanie Overby

China Outsourcing Scorecard

News
Jul 10, 20071 min
Outsourcing

On the verge of dominating the outsourcing market

A guide to outsourcing in China

  • Overall Ranking: Challenging
  • Average 2nd Year Programmer Salary: $5,000 to $10,000
  • Geopolitical Risk: Moderate
  • English Proficency: Poor
  • Pros: Poised to take over India’s top spot, growing at 25% a year since 1999. Infrastructure improving. Shanghai and Beijing well-connected; second-tier cities catching up. Business transparency increasing. Estimated 2 million Chinese software programmers right now and still growing. Good location for servicing local operations of multinationals and Chinese companies. Low-cost alternative for neighboring Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
  • Cons: IT services companies small and inexperienced in global business and enterprise IT. Project managers and seniorlevel talent scarce. English skills minimal. Data and IP protection continues to be an issue. On IIPA priority watch list. Used mainly for low-end application development, maintenance, testing. Rising wages may dilute attractiveness.

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