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Giant strides
before big leap
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Photo by Bobby Sharma
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CHINA'S
Information Technology industry output will be over $ 280 billion
this year, the third highest in the world, and would triple by 2010
to become the world’s largest, a senior Chinese official claimed
here.
Besides strong output,
China is also emerging as a leader in technology, thanks to the
growth of domestic companies, Xu Qing, Vice-Director of the National
Development and Reform Committee’s high-tech division, said.
This year, China’s
IT industry output is expected to hit 2.4 trillion yuan ($ 289.16
billion) to become the world’s third-largest following the US and
Japan, Xu said at the 2003 annual economic conference of China IT
industry.
Xu’s forecast is
based on some new bright spots in the industry, including digital
television, integrated circuit manufacturing and third-generation
telecommunication application, the state media reported.
Chinese companies now
often play a manufacturing role in the IT industry chain without a
core technology patent, which brings them less profit, compared with
their foreign counterparts.
To buck this trend,
the Ministry of Information Technology will spend $ 200 million
annually to help the domestic IT companies develop their own
technologies.
The Ministry also
plans to launch a software developing platform so that domestic
companies can share their technology at a low cost.
In addition, the
Chinese government plans to establish more integrated circuit
manufacturing zones, the report said.
In the first 10
months, China’s IT industry output reached 1.8 trillion yuan and
the IT industry’s output contributed 30 per cent to China’s
economy.
Currently, China’s
IT output contributes the most to the economy among 39 domestic
industries, the Chief Economist of the national bureau of
statistics, Yao Jingyuan said.
"China’s IT
industry will have a bright future because the world’s economy has
began to rebound, as well as fast growth of the Chinese
economy," he said while noting that China’s GDP will jump
more than 8.5 per cent to 11 trillion yuan this year. — PTI
India & China
can do IT together
India and China should
collaborate to leverage each other’s strengths in IT and other
sectors, N.R. Narayana Murthy, chairman, Infosys Technologies, said.
"India and China
should work in consortium to bid for a dream systems integration
project in one of the developed nations that would utilise China’s
hardware skills and India’s software technological skills as this
will bring tremendous benefit to both,"said Murthy.
He made his
recommendations at the close of the three-day India Economic Summit.
One of the summit’s
main recommendations was the call to Indian companies to look
overseas for growth alongside encouraging inward investments,
Colette Mathur, director of World Economic Forum (WEF) said.
Besides leveraging
each other’s market strengths, industry leaders said there was a
need for Indian firms to look beyond Beijing and Shanghai in China
to forge new opportunities.
"At the same time
there is a need to enhance awareness of India’s expertise beyond
the pharmaceutical and IT sectors to help China leverage Indian
strengths in other areas," said Murthy.
The dream systems
integration project, according to Murthy, would enhance India-China
cooperation on the lines of the collaboration in oil exploration in
Sudan.
Taking a leaf from
China’s practice, Murthy urged greater focus on research and
development and domestic market demands.
 Unlike
India, China is exporting only 80 per cent of its IT products and
focusing more on domestic market to fuel growth in the long run, the
industry leaders pointed out.
Restructuring and
privatisation of state-owned units and banks, implementation of the
long-delayed value added tax (VAT) regime and reducing red-tapism
are other challenges that still remain to be tackled by India.
—IANS
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