Chinese cities court Bangalore’s IT Inc for outsourcing
A high-level team from Chengdu is in the City on a 6 day business visit
India and China may be staring down the barrel on the border front but on the business facade, China is firing on all cylinders to woo the Indian IT Inc into the Dragon Country. And which better City than India’s most coveted Silicon Capital — Bangalore.
To woo City’s IT & outsourcing companies to set up shop in its 60 million sq metre Hitech Industrial Development Zone’s Tianfu Software Park, a high level team from China’s Chengdu City is in Bangalore. The Capital of Sichuan Province, is China’s fifth most populous City and hub for outsourcing, transportation and communications industries and most important commercial centre in Western China.
And Chengdu’s Bangalore visit is no coincidence either. For China’s courtship of Bangalore with Chengdu’s mission follows a similar high-level team from Kunming, Capital City of Yunnan Province, which last month, anchored in Bangalore hardselling itself to attract City’s IT majors besides seeking to learn from singular Bangalore’s IT experience.
Fast growing sector
Incidentally, according to Analysys International, IT outsourcing is fastest-growing sector in China IT services market. The domestic software outsourcing market in China is expected to grow at compounded annual growth rate of 35 per cent from $8.71 billion in 2005 to reach $29.43 billion in 2009.
A Chengdu team official, requesting anonymity, told Deccan Herald meetings with over 80 IT companies in Bangalore in the course of next five days has been scheduled. Further, the official said, the team, which will be taking part in Nasscom Product Conclave kicking off here on Tuesday, would be visiting Hinduja Global, Mascon Global Ltd, Infosys Training Centre in Mysore, IIT-Bangalore, Sify, Tally India, Mindlogicx, Juniper Networks, AOL India, MRO-TEK Ltd, AOL India, Perot Systems, HTC Global et al.
The delegation’s Bangalore sojourn began on Monday with presentations by NIIT Senior Vice President Ajai Manohar Lal on Lessons Learnt in Chinese Market besides experts from Chengdu, and roundtables on Chinese Market Opportunities for Indian Firms participated by Wipro Tech Vice President Strategic Programme (BFSI) Ramesh Ponnuru, Growing Training Opportunities by Sify Head of e-Learning Devraj Shetty.
Top destinations
Incidentally, according to IV Global Services-Tholons Top 50 emerging outsourcing destinations recent survey, Chengdu, along with six other Chinese cities — Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Dalian, Guangzhou and Tianjin is among the top 60 outsourcing destinations in the world.
Earlier, briefing reporters, Chengdu Hitech Invesment Group & President Chengdu Tianfu Software Park Christine (Tingting) Du, said Tianfu Software Park houses 134 Fortune 500 companies including homegrown Indian ones like NIIT and Wipro.
Stating that Chengdu, known also for its 100 R&D centres, attractive incentives for IT firms to set up base there, she said, Chengdu, with US$300 million software export in 2008, has been one of China’s fastest growing cities in service-outsourcing sector. The revenue from Chengdu’s software industry in 2008, she said, witnessed 38 per cent year-on-year growth in 2008.
