On the morning of July 23, 2025, the main forum of the 14th China International Service Outsourcing Fair (CISOF) – the "International Service Outsourcing and Digital Services Development Forum" – was grandly held at the China Optics Valley Science and Technology Convention and Exhibition Center in Wuhan, Hubei Province. With the theme of "Digital Intelligence Empowers, Pioneering the Future", this year’s CISOF aims to promote the innovative development of the service outsourcing industry, enhance the influence and competitiveness of the "China Services" brand, and build a high-end platform for global digital services exchange and cooperation.
More than 500 participants attended the opening ceremony and the main forum, including leaders from the Ministry of Commerce and the Wuhan Municipal People’s Government, representatives from commerce authorities of relevant provinces/cities and service outsourcing demonstration cities, park representatives, foreign government officials, domestic and foreign service outsourcing enterprises, industry association representatives, and foreign businessmen.
Fang Aiqing, President of the China International Investment Promotion Agency (CIIPA) and former Vice Minister of Commerce, Li Zhan, Vice Mayor of the Wuhan Municipal People’s Government, and Yu Hongjun, former Vice Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee and former Chinese Ambassador to Foreign Countries, delivered speeches respectively; Jiang Xiaojuan, Professor of the University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS) and former Deputy Secretary-General of the State Council, gave a special speech.
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Fang Aiqing’s Speech: He emphasized that since the Chinese service outsourcing industry was incorporated into the national strategy in 2006, its scale has surged. Currently, with the vigorous development of the digital economy, the connotation and extension of the service outsourcing industry continue to expand amid the wave of digital intelligence, and it is about to enter a "golden period" of development. It has become an important force in advancing national strategies such as "Digital China" and "Trade Power". He suggested that colleagues in the service outsourcing industry should seize the opportunity of digital intelligence, focus on innovation and upgrading, deepen opening-up and cooperation, and strengthen talent cultivation to expand the potential space for China’s service outsourcing industry and inject new vitality into global free trade.
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Li Zhan’s Speech: He stated that in recent years, Wuhan has deepened the construction of a service outsourcing demonstration city. In 2024, the city’s service outsourcing execution volume exceeded 50 billion yuan for the first time, showing a sound momentum of both quantitative and qualitative growth. In the next step, Wuhan will leverage the platform of CISOF to strive to build a national highland for the digital economy, service outsourcing development, and business environment, and achieve a new round of leapfrog development in trade in services and the service outsourcing industry.
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Yu Hongjun’s Speech: He pointed out that despite the complex and severe international environment, China, with its strong economic resilience, will adhere to independent opening-up, and has the confidence and ability to cope with difficulties and challenges. China will adopt an open, inclusive, and constructive attitude towards its economic and trade relations with the United States, the European Union, ASEAN, and other partners, promote the sustained growth of foreign trade and two-way investment, and contribute to world peace and development.
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Jiang Xiaojuan’s Speech: She emphasized that digital intelligence technology empowers the service outsourcing industry with finer division of labor, lower innovation costs, more convenient personalized connections, higher multi-party collaboration efficiency, and larger service scale and scope. The widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology will further promote the transformation of high-knowledge and high-intelligence services to outsourcing, and the importance and competitiveness of service outsourcing will rise rapidly. Currently, international trade has reached a new high: in 2024, the global trade in services reached 7.5 trillion US dollars, contributing 58% to the growth of global trade. Digital technology and digital trade have become important driving forces for a new round of globalization. China’s service outsourcing industry has a solid foundation and continues to upgrade. Relying on its significantly improved innovation capabilities, ultra-large economic aggregate, rising proportion of the service industry, comprehensive advantages in human capital, rapidly developing digital intelligence industry, and in-depth implementation of the globalization strategy, it can achieve high-quality development in the medium and long term.
Du Yingfen, Counselor of the State Council and Researcher at the Institute of Industrial Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stated that AI empowerment and digital service collaboration are the inevitable paths for traditional industries to break through structural difficulties and achieve upgrading. Their implementation can be promoted through a "four-in-one" framework of technological innovation, data governance, organizational reform, and ecosystem construction, so as to seize opportunities in the reconstruction of the global value chain.
Zhang Qin, former Vice President of the China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) and Academician of the International Nuclear Energy Academy, expounded on the in-depth application of AI in the medical field from the perspective of trusted intelligent assistance in primary general clinical diagnosis, and its important role in improving the level of primary medical care.
Zhang Yansheng, Researcher at the China Academy of Macroeconomic Research, proposed that driven by globalization and the technological revolution, China has a strong demand for trade in services and broad development space for service outsourcing. Wuhan should promote the collaboration of diverse enterprises, enhance the internationalization of manufacturing and the level of the service industry, strengthen the efficiency of service outsourcing with new-quality productive forces, and seize regional opportunities for innovative development.
Xin Jie, CEO of LianLian Digital Technology Co., Ltd., stated that AI and the third-generation Internet (Web3) based on blockchain technology will drive the service outsourcing industry to shift from cost advantages to technological advantages, promoting its transformation towards intelligence and platformization. At the same time, this will bring about changes in organizational forms and reshape the industrial structure.
Xing Yue, Chief Strategy Officer of Alibaba Zebra Intelligent Driving, introduced that AI is promoting service outsourcing and trade into the era of AI-native ecological collaboration, featuring intelligent agent collaboration. The service model based on cloud computing (AaaS, AI as a Service) is gradually becoming an important trend, which can actively help industries such as automobiles achieve global innovative development.
Wang Qianhan, Marketing Director of Huawei Cloud, shared cases of how technical services such as AI computing power, data governance, large models, and embodied intelligence are widely applied in manufacturing, agriculture, and other fields to accelerate the digital and intelligent transformation of industries.
The above speakers conducted in-depth analysis of cutting-edge industry topics, shared unique insights and experiences, and brought a feast of ideas to the on-site audience. The opening ceremony and keynote speech session were hosted by Zhou Xiaoyan, Executive Vice President of CIIPA.
Focusing on the theme of "The Impact of Digital and Intelligent Transformation on the Global Service Outsourcing Market", guests including Wang Xin (Senior Vice President of BeyondSoft Corporation), Che Zhongliang (Senior Vice President of iSoftStone Group), Shi Xin (Vice President of Transn Technology Co., Ltd.), Xing Lei (Chairman of Beijing Guanghua Design Development Foundation), and Yang Shuanchang (Dean of Beijing Sanhang Industry-Finance Technology Research Institute) conducted a wonderful interactive exchange from multiple dimensions such as the implementation of overseas strategies, technological innovation trends, application scenario development, service design empowerment, smart factory construction, and professional talent cultivation. They provided rich ideas for the service outsourcing industry to respond to changes. The dialogue session was hosted by Chai Haitao, Invited Vice President of CIIPA.
At the main forum, two key ceremonies were held: the signing ceremony of the strategic cooperation agreement between CIIPA and the World Federation of Chinese Catering Industry, and the licensing ceremony for the establishment of the International Economic and Technological Cooperation Working Committee and the New Economy Professional Committee of CIIPA.
On the afternoon of July 23, the "Symposium on the High-Quality Development of International Service Outsourcing" was held, inviting approximately 100 representatives from government authorities, more than 30 service outsourcing demonstration cities and local commerce authorities, service outsourcing industry institutions, and research institutions. The symposium conducted in-depth exchanges on opportunities and challenges for the high-quality development of the service outsourcing industry under the new situation and put forward relevant policy recommendations.
Concurrent with this year’s CISOF, the "China International Digital Services and Service Outsourcing Exhibition" was held, covering an area of 20,000 square meters. It set up a central exhibition area, an industrial agglomeration exhibition area, and multiple thematic exhibition areas for AI, large models, big data, 5G applications, robot R&D, intelligent manufacturing, smart health, logistics and supply chain, service design, customer centers, cultural and creative industries, and financial services. The exhibition focused on showcasing national industrial policies and achievements, the industrial development characteristics of service outsourcing demonstration cities and relevant provinces/cities, cutting-edge technologies, new business formats, and case results of digital services and service outsourcing.
A total of 16 events were held during this year’s CISOF. In addition to the main forum and symposium, 7 parallel events were organized, including the "Digital Services and Service Outsourcing Leading Enterprises Promotion Conference", "Seminar on Service Design Empowering the Development of the Service Outsourcing Industry", "2025 China-CEEC Digital Economy Development Conference", "Smart Health Development Forum", "AI Digital Services Customer Center Seminar", "One-on-One Project Matching and Negotiation", and "Rural Revitalization and Returning Entrepreneurship – ‘Chu Talents Return Home’ College Student Live Streaming Competition", as well as multiple on-site inspection and matching activities for local parks, bases, and enterprises.
