Global Software and Information Service High- Level Forum & Entrepreneurs' Summit, part of the International Software and Information Service Fair (CISIS) opens here today June 20, 2007.

Nearly 500 people at home and abroad attend the event.

More multinationals begin to put their plants in Dalian. At present, 230 foreign- invested enterprises, among thirty- three top 500 including Dell, Accenture, IBM and HP, have set their sub branches in software and outsourcing, covering areas of information technology outsourcing, business flow outsourcing and high added- value business such as venture management and financing analysis, said Xia Deren, mayor of Dalian at the forum.

Statistics has shown that during the past few years, Dalian's outsourcing has grown with an accelerating speed. The software revenue in 2006 reached 14.5 billion RMB yuan, up 45 per cent, among the export value is US$450 million, growing 50 per cent year on year while the two rise 47 per cent and 56 percent separately in the first five months this year.

The world's biggest information management company, Forte (Group) International, recently put their outsourcing center in Dalian.

Japan has always been the leading cooperation partner with the city, taking up a majority of outsourcing business due to the edges in geographical location and language intellectuals.

Intel announced to build IC plant in Dalian in March this year, drawing a growing amount of European and American investment pouring in.

Dalian is making efforts to open the target market from Japan to Europe and America. The outsourcing business with the latter has risen to 20 per cent last year while it has been 5 per cent in the past few years.

What's the local government believed to be the bottleneck is lack of IT and language talent, which will be continued in two to three years.

The world's outsourcing value is estimated to surpass US$110 billion in the year 2010 which will surely spur a batch of new bellwethers in software and service outsourcing, said the mayor.

The World Economic Forum, also Summer Davos, will be held in the city with the theme of From Davos to Dalian, the Annual Meeting on New Bellwether.

(Editor: Caroline)　(From: DALIANNEWS.COM)