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China no tech rival yet, says India
But it would say that right?

By Tim Ferguson

Published: Friday 24 August 2007

China's growing tech industry is unlikely to challenge India's lead in global services outsourcing in the next three to five years - but should not be ignored.

That's according to a report from Nasscom - the Indian tech industry association - which looks at the state of the Chinese software and services industry.

Nasscom says the Chinese tech market shares similarities with India in its early years but does not yet offer comparable BPO opportunities.

The report suggests China must overcome a number of challenges before it can represent a real threat to India.

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Ameet Nivsarkar, vice president of Nasscom, told silicon.com these challenges include the fact that, unlike in India, English - the most commonly used language in the global IT industry - is not a widely spoken in China.

As well as this, he added, there are very few really significant players in China, with most companies not much larger than 5,000 employees, meaning the infrastructure still needs to develop to compete globally.

But Nivsarkar said with greater experience the Chinese industry has the potential to build a significant BPO industry, especially with the strong government-backing the tech industry enjoys.

He added that the Chinese software and services industry is around five years behind India in terms of development.

The software and services sector accounted for 0.5 per cent of China's total GDP in 2006, compared to 5.5 per cent for India.

The Nasscom report suggests the two nations can learn from each other about how to manage education and skills to meet the demands of the industry.