"The Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 could provide a good opportunity for Indian and Chinese firms to work together," Nalin Surie, Indian Ambassador to China, said.
"We therefore urge Indian and Chinese companies to optimise the commercial opportunities in IT sector for mutual benefit," Surie said while addressing a 'Sino-India Software Industry Enterprise Roundtable' in Beijing on the occasion of the visit of a high-profile Nasscom delegation to China.
"The visit of the Nasscom is the manifestation of our belief that the area of information technology offers concrete opportunities to become a significant area of cooperation in the evolving bilateral economic and commercial relationship," he said.
"There is need to reduce the information deficit pertaining to opportunities, capabilities and avenues for growth and development in our respective countries in the IT sector," he said while addressing captains of the Indian and Chinese software industry," he added.
The contours of cooperation in the field of IT were enunciated in detail by former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee when he visited China in June 2003, Surie noted at the roundtable, also attended by senior Beijing government officials, including the deputy secretary-general of Beijing municipal government, Dong Hong.
"The Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008 could provide a good opportunity for Indian and Chinese IT firms to work together. Our experience has shown that in mega events like these, a substantial proportion of the contracts awarded in
the IT sector are actually sub-contracted to Indian firms by contractors from the developed countries," Vajpayee had stated at a high-level IT conference in Shanghai in June 2003.
"Indian and Chinese firms could instead join up to provide state-of-the art solutions at cost effective prices, thereby also cutting out the middlemen. We could even think of a joint institutional mechanism between the two governments which could see whether modalities could be worked out for this," the former Prime Minister had stated.
The Indian Ambassador also noted that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, during his visit to India in April this year had also laid stress on India-China cooperation in IT.
"Nasscom's visit is thus also part of the conscious effort by the Indian IT industry to respond to the call given by the leadership of our two countries," Surie said.
Industry sources said the 2008 Beijing Olympics was an ideal platform for the software companies of India and China to cooperate since the Chinese side did not have adequate experience in managing large IT projects.
"The 2008 Beijing Olympics offers an excellent opportunity for the two Asian giants to cooperate for mutual benefit," the source, who did not want to be identified, said, adding that the IT-related projects for the Olympics could run into millions of US dollars.
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