[India] Govt identifies markets to boost software exports

["Irfan Khan" <KhanIA@super.net.pk>]

Govt identifies markets to boost software exports 

T S Vishwanath 
NEW DELHI 8 JULY 

THE GOVERNMENT of India has identified Brazil, Turkey and South 
Africa to boost software exports from small and medium exporters in 
the country. The total market potential in these countries alone is 
over $30 billion. 

With Y2K opportunities diminishing, the government is looking at new 
areas for market development around the globe. The commerce minister, 
Mr Ramakrishna Hegde, is leading a delegation of software companies 
to Brazil later this month to capitalise on the growing Latin 
American market, officials said. The trip is being organised by the 
Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC). 
The $3-billion Indian software sector is going to use these new 
markets as major engines of growth, officials said. The Focus-LAC 
(Latin American Continent) programme of the commerce ministry is 
being implemented by the ESC and is targeting the $24.6-billion 
market of information technology in Brazil, officials said. 
The second market area identified is Turkey. The World Bank is 
presently funding a $400-million project for computerisation of 
schools in Turkey. 

The government of Turkey in its education department has provided a 
total outlay of $1 billion for information technology towards 
computerisation of schools in the next three to four years. These 
would present good opportunities to Indian companies, officials said. 
The ESC will be participating in the largest international exhibition 
of information and communications technology - BILSIM'99 - to be held 
in Istanbul in the first week of September, officials said. 

The third major area of market diversification identified is South 
Africa. The Indo-South African Commercial Alliance that has been set 
up by the government of South Africa and the commerce ministry here 
is being serviced by ESC for development of software exports. 
Industry analysts believe that India is failing to capitalise fully 
on the $750-billion global software market. As per the ESC survey, 
only 13 software companies in India manage to export more than Rs 100 
crore per annum. 

The bulk of the over 600 software companies in India export just 
about Rs 1 crore or less; 222 companies export worth Rs 1 crore and 
over 315 companies export less than Rs 1 crore of software. To 
improve the country's performance in this sector, industry analysts 
say that exporters will, therefore, have to identify new markets and 
areas. 

http://www.economictimes.com/today/09tech01.htm