BEIJING — China's service outsourcing industry reported stable growth in the first 10 months of 2020, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

Chinese firms inked service outsourcing contracts worth about 1.1 trillion yuan (about $167.2 billion) in the Jan-Oct period, up 9.3 percent year-on-year.

The executed contract value stood at 759 billion yuan in the first 10 months, representing a year-on-year increase of 13.2 percent.

Of the total, offshore service outsourcing contracts reached 652.06 billion yuan during the period, up 7.6 percent year-on-year.

The executed value of offshore service outsourcing contracts with members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership increased 9.3 percent year-on-year during the period.

Outsourcing is the business practice of hiring a party outside a company to perform services and make goods traditionally undertaken by the company's employees.

In China, service outsourcing is typically divided into three subsectors: information technology outsourcing, business process outsourcing and knowledge process outsourcing.