China vows to boost its own outsourcing industry

BEIJING, Sept 9 (Reuters) - China, aiming to rival India as an outsourcing destination, has launched measures to help local businesses providing back-office services, according to a new policy framework announced on Wednesday.

Chinese banks were told to provide more credit to outsourcing service firms, especially in 20 cities designated by Beijing as "bases" for the industry.

The details were published on the People's Bank of China website (www.pbc.gov.cn).

Insurance firms were ordered to develop more policies to suit the outsourcing business and authorities were urged to work out detailed guidelines by the end of this month to help their local firms.

Beijing said it would encourage initial public offerings by outsourcing firms. It also called on domestic banks to get into the act and give them business by contracting back-office operations such as call centres to third-party service providers.

The statement was jointly issued by the central bank, the Ministry of Commerce, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange. (Reporting by Zhou Xin and Simon Rabinovitch; Editing by Nick Macfie)