BEIJING, Feb. 4 -- China's service outsourcing industry maintained a stable expansion in 2022, reflecting strong resilience and vitality, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce.

Chinese firms inked service outsourcing contracts worth nearly 2.44 trillion yuan (about 362 billion U.S. dollars) last year, up 14.2 percent year on year, the data revealed.

The executed contract value came in at 1.65 trillion yuan in 2022, marking a yearly increase of 10.3 percent.

Outsourcing refers to hiring an outside party to carry out services or produce goods typically undertaken by in-house employees.

Of the total, the value of the offshore service outsourcing contract rose 16.7 percent year on year to about 1.32 trillion yuan.

In terms of the executed contract value, offshore service outsourcing with members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and Belt and Road countries went up 4.2 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively.

In 2022, the offshore service outsourcing undertaken by China's private sector accounted for 31.8 percent of the country's total, while that conducted by foreign-funded companies took up 43.4 percent.