BEIJING — China's service outsourcing industry saw a robust expansion last year, with offshore service outsourcing contract value exceeding 1 trillion yuan (about $157 billion) for the first time, official data showed.

Chinese firms inked service outsourcing contracts worth about 2.13 trillion yuan in 2021, rising 25.4 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The executed contract value stood at about 1.5 trillion yuan last year, an increase of 23.6 percent.

Specifically, offshore service outsourcing contract value rose 16 percent from a year ago to hit 1.13 trillion yuan.

Service outsourcing with countries along the Belt and Road saw steady growth, with contracts valued at 226.1 billion yuan last year, a year-on-year increase of 25.7 percent.

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 sub-sectors: information technology outsourcing, business process outsourcing, and knowledge process outsourcing.