IT Exports To Africa & Latam To Rise Sharply: Nasscom

www.financialexpress.com Prachi Verma

New Delhi The contribution of Latin America, Africa and Middle East to the Indian IT exports is likely to grow by 40 per cent in the fiscal ending March 2004 to $1.16 billion from $800 million in this fiscal, according to National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom).

Sunil Mehta The countries in Latin America, Middle East and Africa are showing keen interest in outsourcing their IT work to India.

“So far these countries have contributed 8 per cent of the total Indian IT exports (about $10 billion) and we expect that their contribution will rise to 15 per cent of total IT exports by 2006. Non-traditional outsourcers (besides US and UK) are clearly focusing more on India for fulfilling their IT outsourcing requirement,” Nasscom vice president Sunil Mehta told eFE.

Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC), which is organising a three-day event Indiasoft 2003 in the Capital later this month, also confirmed this trend.

“There is an encouraging interest from the non-traditional countries, (that have not been outsourcing work to India so far) especially Latin America and Africa compared to previous years,” ESC director DK Sareen said.

According to him, African companies like My Computer Tanzana Ltd, Mega System Company Ltd and Matrix Consulting are looking at outsourcing their hardware and software requirement to India.

He said that countries like Chile, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, China are sending strong delegations for Indiasoft 2003.

There are over 150 foreign companies participating in Indiasoft conference starting from February 20.

Almost half of the participating companies are from Africa and Latin America, claimed Mr Sareen.

Nasscom expects Italy to contribute $50 million over the next three years to India’s IT industry.

“Indian IT companies should invest in the Italian customers and promote the concept of offshoring as there is a huge outsourcing potential for India,” Mr Mehta said.

The Italian companies are looking at an offshore development opportunity in India in areas like financial services, telecommunication, manufacturing and utilities.

“Malayasia is a good alternative location for the animation production centre as the country already has experience in this field. Indian companies could easily locate their animation production centres in this country,” Mr Mehta said.

Nasscom is expecting over 150 potential customers to participate in the Nasscom 2003 from the US, Europe, Malayasia and Asia.

“African and Middle East companies are keen on outsourcing their IT requirement in the banking sector to India,” Mr Mehta said.