IT: China claims it is ahead of India

China, whose software exports surged to $2.8 billion, has claimed that the scale of its software industry has surpassed that of India and South Korea.

The scale of China's software industry in 2004 reached 230 billion yuan ($27.84 billion), up 2.8 times when compared to that of five years ago, surpassing India and South Korea, a senior official from the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said.

China views the software industry as the core of the information industry and attaches high importance to the development of the software sector, deputy president of MII's Department of Electronics and Information Product Administration Ding Wenwu said while participating at a recent software conference.

Since the implementation of favourable industrial policies, the core competitiveness of China's software industry has become increasingly stronger, Ding was quoted as saying by China News Service.

China's software export volume rose from $400 million in 2000 to $2.8 billion in 2004, up six-fold in five years, Ding said.

Five years ago, policies encouraging the development of the software industry issued by the State Council, China's cabinet, has served as an active guideline for the development of the sector.

In the past five years, China has invested billions in funds on finance, taxation, industrial technology, export, income allocation, professional training, purchase and protection of intellectual property rights in an effort to promote the development of the software and integrated circuit industries, the official noted.

China has established 11 national software industry bases, six national software export bases and 172 national key software enterprises, signalling the communist nation's desire to be a major global software player.

However, China's software employees have been suffering from rigid education at universities and lack of training at enterprises, a survey on the existence of software workers by a committee of China Youth Software Promotion Project has found.

The survey, which involved 4,400 people, found that 60 per cent domestic software companies failed to provide necessary career plans for their employees, which are urgently needed at a rapid updating trade, the People's Daily reported on its Web site.

Although most software employees hope to improve themselves through training, the social environment provides very few opportunities, the survey revealed. On the one hand, companies are reluctant to train their staff, on the other hand, very few social institutions are able to offer trainings on up-to-date technologies.

It is also found that 77 per cent software employees work over eight hours, and those at middle level have no time to digest new ideas or technologies.

The survey says that the country's 'backward education system' has resulted in students weak in programming capability, while enterprises employing them have been unwilling to provide relevant training.

China lacks special institutions to train managerial staff for software development. The result is, software students can hardly find employers to accept them, while companies have difficulty in recruiting qualified programmers, the report said.

Source : Rediff.com