At the 138th Canton Fair, which ended earlier, Foshan set a new historical record with 773 companies and 1913 booths, becoming the undisputed "Foshan Legion" at the exhibition. From kitchen appliances equipped with intelligent sensing systems, to smart home products with customized appearances, and to mechanical equipment adapted to overseas market demands, each product not only showcases the hard power of Foshan manufacturing, but also hides the ingenuity of Foshan design empowerment.

Represented by industrial design, in Foshan, where manufacturing dominates, an industrial upgrade driven by service outsourcing is quietly advancing. The three provincial-level service outsourcing demonstration parks, Guangdong Industrial Design City, Guangdong Financial High-tech Zone, and Guangdong (Foshan) Software Industry Park, are promoting the collaborative efforts of the three major service outsourcing fields of design, finance, and digital technology with the momentum of "three pillars", reshaping the value chain of this manufacturing city.

Guangdong Industrial Design City: National Demonstration Base Gathers 8000 Designers, Knowledge Outsourcing Drives Manufacturing Innovation

In the product exhibition hall of Foshan Kava Technology Co., Ltd., a seemingly inconspicuous foldable storage electric fan is highly favored in overseas markets. Data shows that in the Japanese and Korean markets alone, the annual sales volume of this product is as high as 300,000 units, making it a well-deserved "star product."

In Guangdong Industrial Design City, such designs and creativity are almost born every day. As the earliest established industrial design theme park in China, Guangdong Industrial Design City was rated as a "Guangdong Province Service Outsourcing Demonstration Park" by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Commerce as early as 2016. Its service outsourcing business is mainly based on "Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO)", with technology research and development as the foundation and product design as the feature.

At present, there are a total of 306 enterprises settled in the park, including 270 design service outsourcing enterprises, accounting for about 88%. The industrial fields of outsourcing design and research and development services for park enterprises are mainly concentrated in home appliances, pet supplies, mechanical equipment, educational equipment, etc. The service targets are mainly the manufacturing market in Guangdong, radiating to Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, Qingdao in Shandong, and extending to overseas regions such as South Korea, Japan, Canada, France, Brazil, etc.

"We not only provide product design, but also participate in the entire process from conceptual ideas to mass production," said a design company leader. "This is essentially a high-value knowledge process outsourcing."

This service model that deeply participates in the entire process of enterprise innovation marks the transformation of industrial design service outsourcing from simple exterior design to full chain innovation services, and has also become an important support for Foshan's manufacturing industry to move towards the high-end of the value chain. The relevant person in charge of the park introduced that nearly 600 entrepreneurial entities have been incubated here, of which 52 have grown into high-tech enterprises, and a number of well-known domestic design services and independent research and development enterprises such as Hongyi and Douhe have emerged.

The high-end trend is not only reflected in the product's premium ability, but also in the understanding and practice of green innovation. In October of this year, at the 2025 World Green Design Conference, Guangdong Industrial Design City was awarded the title of "International Demonstration Park for Green Design", marking the international recognition of its practical achievements.

The deep development of industrial design service outsourcing cannot be separated from the collaborative support of talents and industry university research. After 5 years of effort, Design City has gathered over 8000 design and research personnel in 2017.

Guangdong Financial High tech Zone: Driven by both financial backend and industrial finance, building a new ecosystem of service outsourcing

For Foshan, a manufacturing city, the agglomeration and development of financial backend service outsourcing has built a bridge between finance and industry, becoming a key link for their integration. In Guangdong Financial High tech Zone, the outsourcing of financial backend services is showing a trend of diversified integration.

As one of the representative enterprises in the park, Guangdong Rural Credit Data Center undertakes the important task of serving as the financial technology backend service base for rural commercial banks in the province, and is continuously providing comprehensive, professional, innovative, and efficient financial technology services for rural commercial banks in the province. This model of outsourcing non core business operations is a typical form of financial service outsourcing, vividly demonstrating the industry's operational mode and vitality.

Guangdong Financial High-tech Zone is a key participant in the wave of financial backend service outsourcing in Foshan. From the former international financial backend base to the current industrial financial highland covering the entire financial industry and connecting the front, middle, and back chains, it witnesses and promotes the vigorous development of the financial backend service outsourcing industry.

With the strategy of "dislocation competition", Guangdong Financial High-tech Zone has outlined a clear development blueprint during the 14th Five Year Plan period: it has absorbed 1044 projects such as Foshan Financial Futures, and added registered capital and investment scale exceeding 148.2 billion yuan.

At present, the park has gathered more than 30 internationally renowned financial institutions' backend services, including HSBC Global Operations Center, AIA Financial Center, and KPMG Global Shared Services Center, forming a comprehensive backend service system covering financial data processing, disaster recovery, research and development, and other categories.

The landing of leading projects such as the intensive operation center of Bank of China and the Guangdong Rural Credit Data Center marks the transformation and upgrading of the park from basic back-end to core research and development, further consolidating its leading position in the field of financial back-end service outsourcing.

Standing at a new starting point of the 18th anniversary, Guangdong Financial High-tech Zone has clarified the dual wheel driving path of "space expansion + ecological upgrading", fully leveraging the subjective initiative of platforms and institutions to explore new models that empower financial services for the real economy.

Guangdong Province (Foshan) Software Industry Park: Leveraging the digital economy to cluster industries and create a new highland for information technology service outsourcing

Currently, Foshan is making every effort to promote the construction of the digital economy, with artificial intelligence, big data and other digital technologies as the core, to push the information technology service outsourcing (ITO) industry towards high-end, digital and intelligent development.

In this context, Guangdong Province (Foshan) Software Industry Park, as one of the core carriers of the Foshan Digital Economy Innovation Industry Agglomeration Zone, is actively introducing digital economy industries such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, riding the wave of park upgrading and transformation, and is committed to building a high-end industrial park with dual ecology, full chain, and specialization.

In August 2024, the second phase of the software park upgrade and renovation project was successfully completed, giving the park a completely new appearance and attracting enterprises such as Foshan Shenggu Technology Co., Ltd. to settle in. At the same time, strategic cooperation was reached with five association institutions, including the Shenzhen Industry Leader Enterprise Development Promotion Association and the Foshan Service Trade and Outsourcing Association, further enriching the industrial ecology of ITO.

It is reported that the Software Park provides full process support for enterprises from entry to operation by creating two platforms: a comprehensive service center and a shared display center. Currently, there are over 300 registered enterprises, including high-tech enterprises and international CMMI Level 3 certified enterprises.

This industrial agglomeration effect is the fertile soil for the development of ITO. The representative of the settled enterprises stated that through the communication platform built in the park, enterprises can explore the new trends of digital economy development together with enterprises from different fields.

Standing at a new starting point of development, the effectiveness of the Foshan Service Outsourcing Demonstration Park has been confirmed through specific numbers. The city's service outsourcing execution volume continues to grow. As of October 31 this year, Foshan enterprises have undertaken service outsourcing business execution volume of 1.944 billion US dollars. This is not only a report card for the development of Foshan's service outsourcing industry, but also a booster for the transformation and upgrading of Foshan's manufacturing industry.

In the future, Foshan will promote the transformation of service outsourcing from scale expansion to value enhancement, and upgrade from industrial support to innovation engine. The three demonstration parks will further strengthen collaborative linkage, build a full chain service system covering technological innovation, capital support, and industrial application, and help Foshan seize the industrial high ground in global competition.