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Talent shortage will impede the development of China's outsourcing industry, despite the optimistic prediction on China's IT outsourcing industry in the coming ten years.

The remarks were made by Qu Zhonghua, a senior program manager of IBM China's Shenzhen branch, at the 11th Joint International Computer Conference (JICC 2005) held in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.

The rapid growth of the global outsourcing industry has provided opportunities for China's outsourcing industry in recent years, but the opportunities will not turn into successes if the country fails to provide sufficient qualified workforce, he said.

IBM gave up many opportunities in China for failing to recruit enough outsourcing professionals, he said. For example, IBM China's Dalian branch had to give up half of its outsourcing businesses in 2004.

According to Qu, China will need at least 2.5 million outsourcing professionals in 2015, when the export value of the outsourcing industry in China is expected by many experts to top 50 billion US dollars, even higher than the projected figure in India in 2015.

Qu said the outsourcing workforce in India now exceeds 1 million, yet the workforce in China is approximately 70,000 only, and China has to learn a lot from India in the IT outsourcing industry.

With the theme of "IT Intellectual Capital for the Betterment of Human Life," JICC 2005 lasted from Nov. 10 to 12, and attracted about 260 IT experts, officials and business people from China, the United States and Canada.