The Global IT Outsourcing Summit 2005 opened Thursday in Shanghai, China's leading industrial center, involving more than 200 professionals from home and abroad.

The IT professionals who will deliver speeches at the summit include representatives from the UK National Outsourcing Association, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency, Microsoft Research Asia and Lucent Technologies (China).

An important topic of the summit is to set up the East China --Yangtze Region Software Industry Cooperation Alliance.

Zhou Yupeng, vice mayor of Shanghai, said at the opening ceremony that the city's software industry has maintained a growth rate of 50 percent since 2001.

"At present, the city government is mapping out the 11th Five-Year Plan which will highlight the IT outsourcing service," Zhou said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 11, 2005)