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India, China must collaborate in IT'
Exploit technology synergies: PM
PRIME Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has called for a partnership between India and China to exploit synergies in the knowledge industry instead of competing with each other.
“In combination, rather than in competition, the Indian and Chinese IT industries can be a potent force. This is the principle which has a far wider application in South-South cooperation,” he said in his keynote address at the seminar “India and China: Challenges and Opportunities in the IT sector” here on Thursday morning.
Specifically, he suggested that the Olympic Games 2008 to be held in Beijing could be a good opportunity for the two countries to come together. Indian and Chinese firms could join up to compete for the large number of IT-related contracts that the event will throw up and provide state-of-the-art solutions at cost-effective prices while cutting out middlemen.
“We could even think of a joint institutional mechanism between the two countries which could see whether modalities could be worked out for this,” he said. The day long event, the first of its kind organised by Nasscom in association with CII and Assocham, was attended by a large number of Indian businessmen, both those doing business with China and those wanting to. The PM’s address was in tune with Nasscom’s slogan for the seminar: “India and China, not India vs China.”
Mr Vajpayee pointed out that the advances made by India and China in both the software and hardware sectors provided “natural ground for an effective alliance” in the IT industry. Also the strong brand name that Indian IT firms have built for themselves will be an asset in any India-China IT partnership.
Similarly the joining of forces of the two countries in research and innovation to focus on specific areas of technological advantage would benefit them far more than competition would, he said.
Mr Vajpayee also spoke of the need to share experience in efforts to bridge the digital divide or remedy regional imbalances in access to technology. “A sharing of experiences in this important objective could help develop better strategies in both countries to bridge the digital divide,” he said. Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said the PM’s visit to China was a signal of happy times to come, hopefully of a “great collaboration” between the two countries.
The Prime Minister took a tour of the Pu Dong Special Economic Zone, China’s most dynamic and ambitious venture. The SEZ is spread over 522 km and accounts for 30 per cent of total FDI in the country, which works out to about $44 billion.
Later in the day, the CII launched an India-China Club and opened its East Asia Regional office in recognition of the importance of China on the Indian corporate radar.
Information Technology Minister Arun Shourie said China and India should transform any perception of rivalry between them into friendship to make the "Asian century" a reality. "Both countries need to put value to that relationship, transcending the calculus of immediate advantage of trying to put down the other," Mr Shourie said. Mr Shourie gave the example of the US and the European Union that were fierce business competitors and yet had 75 per cent of their trade with each other.
"Unless we in Asia work with the vision this EU-US relationship, where we both give something to achieve something larger, the Asian century dream cannot be realised," he said.
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