Crisis has a silver lining for Hangzhou

While many businesses are worried about the impact of the global financial crisis, the local government in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, sees an opportunity to boost its financial outsourcing industry.

As the crisis bites, many multinationals are transferring operations to China and India to reduce costs, offering new opportunities to Hangzhou to become a global outsourcing industry base, Cai Qi, Hangzhou's mayor, told the International Outsourcing Business Development Summit in the city yesterday.

The local government has allocated 100 million yuan to support the development of outsourcing industry, to which it will add a further 200 million yuan next year, he said.