印度外包转移中国

When Infosys Technologies began scouting for an alternative to India as a source of unlimited, low-cost human resources, the fast-growing company came up with one answer: its home country's archrival, China.

Infosys, the Bangalore-based software services company, and other top Indian outsourcing rivals, including Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro Technologies, are doing application development and maintenance work in China as they grow rapidly to keep up with booming demand from the West for their services.

And they are quickly concluding that only China has a worker base equal to India's in terms of cost, quality and scale. Expansion there also offers the ability to cater to & and possibly garner more of & the local and regional markets, including Japan.

According to a KPMG study for the National Association of Software and Services Companies, or Nasscom, an industry trade group in India, the country will face an acute shortage of technical employees by 2009, falling short by about 250,000 workers.

"We need a deep reservoir of talent, as well as an alternative low-cost center like India as we continue to grow," said Nandan Nilekani, chief executive of Infosys. "And only China can match up."

In the quarter that ended in September, Infosys alone added more than 5,000 employees, for a total of nearly 33,000. And Wipro added 5,500 employees, reaching more than 36,000.

"China will soon be competing with India as an outsourcing destination," said Singapore-based Girija Pande, director for Asia Pacific of Tata Consultancy, India's top software services exporter.