China’s province of Guizhou has opened its doors to top Indian cyber companies, in tune with the impulse imparted during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit that the India-China economic engagement is now ready to expand to the provincial level.
Big Data is the focus of the Information Technology (IT) plan conceived by the Guizhou local government, which wants Indian IT majors to take care of the software end. “The concentration on Big Data and not a crowded field is a smart decision and encourages greater chances of success,” says Kamal Dhuper, country head of the National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), in a conversation with The Hindu on Wednesday. Big Data is part of an ever-growing IT vocabulary, which refers to large volumes of data that can be mined to reveal valuable real time information.
At the first meeting on Wednesday of the newly formed China and India IT Industry Development Forum, in the Guian New Area (GNA), Chinese officials stressed that they were rapidly building the entire infrastructure required for Cloud Computing and Big Data. But support from big Indian IT firms was required to create a human talent pool, along with a string of software inputs, so that the accumulating hardware assets could be fully utilised. “We need Indian companies to develop talent. The IT industry of the two companies is complementary and advantageous for each other,” observed Geng Guigang, deputy general manager of the Guian New Area Development Investment Company, which is steering the development of GNA — a lush green enclave attractively set against the backdrop of thickly forested hills.
Labour costs are still low in the province, which is well connected to China’s growth hubs of Chengdu and Chongqing, with Shanghai and Guangzhou not too far away.
Analysts say that GNA’s development is the result of a decision taken by the government to pursue high-end, innovation based industry, particularly in western China, to generate a “new normal” economy. The GNA is the eighth area of national development, based on the lines of Pudong Area in Shanghai and the Binhai (Tianjin) integrated hub, which falls within the radius of Beijing.
India IT majors have responded positively to the GNA initiative. “IT development in the GNA has the resources, full governmental support and the required infrastructure. Big Data prospects look bright, but we have to now look at the details,” says Sujit Chatterjee, president of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in China. His peer, Rajib Mehra of Wipro agrees. “We are positively inclined for a possible investment, and would now be awaiting guidance from a joint task force that has been formed during out meeting,” observed Mr. Mehra. The task force, whose findings are expected to yield concrete business deals, would be steered by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and authorities in the GNA.
Reposing full confidence in its future, NIIT has been a first mover from the Indian IT sector in the GNA, which has a large Electronic Information Industrial Park, where Chinese IT heavyweights including Foxconn and Baidu have already opened shop. Nearly 10,000 students will be trained over five years, in universities, colleges and companies in the area, says Mr. Dhuper.
India’s promising engagement with the Ghuizo province is fast becoming a two-way street. Last month, The Guizhou Maritime Silk Road International Investment Corporation (GIIC) signed a framework MoU for setting up an industrial park in Kakinada SEZ in Andhra Pradesh. The business interaction at the local levels, prompted Namgya Khampa, Economic Counsellor at the Indian embassy in Beijing to observe that India and China were “transitioning into the next phase of our economic partnership,” involving multiple stakeholders particularly at the level of states and provinces in the two countries.
