Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to further boost TCS's business in China

BEIJING: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's visit to TCS headquarters in Mumbai and his promise to open up his country's services industry may further boost the Indian IT major's forays in the communist nation.


China's service industry will be more open to the world, which will bring increasing opportunities for foreign companies, including ones from India, Li said while speaking during his visit to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) office yesterday.

"We warmly welcome competitive Indian companies to participate in the Chinese market, which will be beneficial for improving trade imbalance between the two countries," state-run China Daily quoted him as saying.

Li also interacted with TCS employees in China at the Shanghai Global Development Centre through live video-conferencing.

"Industry insiders believe that the visit is an indication of the company's growing importance in China," the Daily said.

TATA group is the biggest Indian group present in China. Besides TCS, which made strong forays into Chinese IT market, late last year TATA's Jaguar Land Rover entered into a joint venture with China's Chery Automobiles with an investment of RMB 10.9 billion.

"Opening of IT sector in China will not only help Indian firms but also improve the efficiency of Chinese firms," TCS CEO Natarajan Chandrasekaran told Chinese state-run CCTV.

TCS which has more than 276,000 employees worldwide and posted $ 11.6 billion last year has six global delivery centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Tianjin, Shenzhen and Dalian.

"We expect growing demand for outsourcing services in China, and we are ready to provide sufficient services and products," said Dong Qiqi, CEO of TCS China.

The company has around 400 clients in China, including the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, Bank of China, Hua Xia Bank and Guangdong Provincial Rural Credit Cooperative Union.

One of the company's key projects in China is iCity, a host of cloud-based IT solutions that aims to provide integrated urban management services to promote economic, social and sustainable growth.

Technology research firm IDC forecast that IT spending in emerging markets this year will grow 8.8 per cent to exceed $ 730 billion, with BRICS countries - especially China - to continue to dominate.

China will continue to account for more than 25 per cent of the IT spending in emerging markets, the report said.