New data released by the Ministry of Commerce show China’s service outsourcing contracts have seen considerable year on year growth during the first months of 2016. The net worth of service outsourcing contracts reached about 350 billion yuan, or $53 billion, 25 percent up year-on-year.

In the single month of May, the international service outsourcing was valued at about 40 billion yuan, which is $6 billion, showing year on year increases of 33 percent. The United States, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea are still the major markets to purchase China’s international services.

Information technology outsourcing or ITO continued to lead a dominant position. In the first five months of this year, outbound direct investment surged over 60 percent year on year to 480 billion yuan, or $74 billion. That’s compared to a less than 4 percent rise of foreign direct investment into the country. The ministry expects outbound investment to exceed inbound direct investment this year.