Chinese tech park woos Indian IT, BPO players

Even as the visit of the Chinese President preoccupied Indian officialdom in the New Delhi, Indian and Chinese technology teams have been meeting in Mumbai and Bangalore to explore areas of cooperation.

A team from the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), based in China's garden city (80 km inland from Shanghai), has been showcasing its extensive infrastructure for high tech development and manufacturing.

The Park is China's number one target of foreign investment and is already home to over 2,500 registered companies, spread across electronic hardware, software services and bio-sciences. The biggest success for the team last week was the three-way agreement inked with the Gurgaon-based Quatrro BPO Solutions (headed by India's outsourcing pioneer Raman Roy), SIP and one of the Park's major `tenants' Suzsoft.

The deal will start joint studies aimed at promoting the business processing industry in China, specifically a BPO industry in SIP.

Business philosophy

Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the SIP showcase in Bangalore, Suzsoft CEO James Tong said, "it is our business philosophy to partner with the best. We are excited to be associated with Mr. Raman and his Quatrro team.''

Ma Ming, SIP Administrative Committee Chairman, said, "Mr. Raman and his team are indeed the pioneers of BPO and SIP. Suzhou is the leader in IT and hi-tech services in China.

"My role, as a representative of the Chinese Government in this three party joint MoU, is to provide the platform and the `catalyst incentives' necessary for BPO to flourish in China.''

Quatrro will not be the first Indian player to partner with SIP. N. Murali Mohan, Vice President of the Bangalore-based IIHT Ltd explained that the company was present in Suzhou as part of its initiative jointly with Broadengate, a technology outsourcing company in Shenzhen, to provide training and services in technology infrastructure management.

Suzsoft's own BPO operations in SIP are headed by Sanjeev Joshi, who said over 800 Indian students in Suzhou studying at the medical college there had already created a mini India in one of China's fastest growing second tier IT destinations.