Then, the company will spend six months in language and skills training, after which it will still take two- to- three years for the new employees to be familiar with the process through hands-on training, according to Zhang.

Zhang said marketing personnel are the most difficult to find.

"Besides all the requirements mentioned above, they have to have client resources," he said.

He said that almost all the management-level workers of the service oursourcing companies have overseas study or work experience, which will help them to get overseas clients.

"Such kind of talent you may get by chance, but not effort," he said.

His company has been thinking of developing a European and American market, but not taking into account until it got proper market developing people this year.

Zhang said the company would increase its annual turnover from last year's 10 million US dollars to this year's 20 million, and would therefore, have to employ 1,000 more people this year.

Local government's policy offered a helping hand.

The company joined a nationwide job fair tour organized by the Wuxi municipal government for some 100 local service outsourcing companies to find potential employees, which started in February.

They would travel to major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhan to recruit qualified workforce, according to the Wuxi Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau.

Zhang said although his company recruited people through the Internet or other job fairs, taking part in the group activity will enhance the reputation of the company in order to attract more talent.

"Some excellent college graduates still have little understanding on service outsourcing companies. If they see we are supported by the government, they will trust us more," he said.

Measures to bolster the outsourcing industry were announced early February by the Chinese government.

The document said that 20 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Suzhou and Hangzhou, have been designated for pilot service outsourcing programs. Beginning Jan. 1, these companies are eligible for tax breaks, financial support, subsidies and intellectual property rights protection.

The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Education will work out policies on service outsourcing talents, training 1.2 million people in coming five years and helping them to find proper jobs.

The government will offer service outsourcing companies a subsidy of up to 4,500 yuan (662 US dollars) a year for every college graduate employed on a contract of at least one year.

Wuxi, which is also selected as a pilot city, will allocate an extra of 8,500 yuan per person each year as training subsidy for outsourcing companies, the bureau said.

"Altogether we can get a 13,000 yuan training subsidy for each graduate we recruit, which can almost cover the training cost," Zhang Zhongyang said.

Statistics show, world cross-border service and software outsourcing business volume hit 400 billion US dollars in 2007. The figure is expected to hit 1.6 trillion US dollars by 2010.

Zhang said that the government has made great efforts to support the industry.

"We have to seize the chance," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 11, 2009)