Since China is known for its academic research and development, Au Yeung said enterprises could take advantage of these technologies for business growth at a lower price.

He quoted one example: the use of human engineering, which includes the study of human habits and eyeball-placement in website design and development.

"By making good use of this nascent technology to increase the usability of the website or reduce the number of clicks for its users and customers, enterprises are generating more strategic value from their Chinese outsourcing providers," he said.

"Hong Kong enterprises should not limit their outsourcing in China to the low-cost routine tasks-if companies are looking for cheap and low-business value sub-contracting work, many booming Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam [please refer to page 20], can provide even cheaper services." he concluded.

- IDG staff contributed to this article