India, China Look To Collaborate On SoftwareIndia, China Look To Collaborate On Software

BANGALORE, India — Potential rivals for the world's software outsourcing business, India and China, are taking steps to increase the level of mutual business activity in this industry.

China has set up a special division to lure major Indian software firms such as TCS Ltd., Wipro Ltd., Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Satyam Computer Services Ltd. to expand their China operations beyond Shanghai into other Chinese cities such as Beijing. The Sino-India Cooperative Office was set up in December under China's National Software Export Base. It is manned by Chinese officials who will work with Indian companies to understand their needs in order to get them to set up new centers in China.

Meanwhile, Zensar Technologies Ltd., located in Pune in Western India, is reported to have signed a pact with the local government in Shenzhen to train about a thousand software project managers in India. Project management skills are scarce in China, which restricts its ability to win big outsourcing deals that Indian companies keep signing all the time.

These trainees will also learn communication and negotiation skills and work with Zensar for its clients in Europe and the U.S. The Shenzhen government is subsidizing the training costs.

Most large Indian software firms have small development centers in China and now determining whether the decision will make long-term business sense.

Also, China's Huawei Technologies has its largest offshore development center here in Bangalore where it has invested about $80 million and employs about 700 staff. Plans are to add another $100 million in the next three years.