Dalian is looking to increase its software exports almost
eightfold to US$3.5 billion by 2012, a senior city official
said.
"We will strive to become the most important outsourcing
powerhouse not only in China, but also in the world," said Dai
Yulin, vice-mayor of the costal city of Northeast China's Liaoning
Province.
To meet that goal, the city looks to host as much as six
software companies with annual sales of more than 1 billion yuan by
2012. Meanwhile, it will also cultivate three to five homegrown
software exporters with more than 10,000 employees.
"By then, Dalian will have more than 150,000 software engineers,
bringing in more than 40 billion yuan in software sales for the
city," Dai said.
The port city, once famous for its shipyards and seaside tourist
attractions, has in the last decade successfully turned itself into
the capital of China's software and IT services industries.
In 2006, Dalian exported US$450 million worth of software
products and IT services, accounting for almost one-third of
China's total US$1.43 billion software outsourcing revenue,
according to CCID Consulting, a Beijing-based IT consultancy.
"Our top priority now is to facilitate the growth of software
companies in the city," Dai said. "We will further enhance our
infrastructure and talent pool for that."
Presently, Dalian has more than 40,000 software engineers
working for more than 600 outsourcing service providers, including
30 Fortune 500 companies.
A number of overseas giants such as IBM, Accenture and
Hewlett-Packard have already set up shop in Dalian. US computer
maker Dell is now relying on its call center in the city to provide
services to its Japanese customers. And Fidelity International, a
leading fund management firm, is planning to set up China's first
foreign fund management back-office operation in Dalian.
Some of these companies have mapped out aggressive expansion
plans in the city. IBM hopes to expand a 2,000-employee offshore
service center in Dalian into a facility with 20,000 staff within a
few years.
"The greatest challenge for Dalian is still people. We will
continue to enhance the training of software talent in the city and
try to attract more talent from other parts of the nation," Dai
said.
Local authorities have encouraged software companies in Dalian
to cooperate with local universities to give outsourcing service
training to students when they are still in school. IBM and Dalian
University of Technology already have a relationship and a series
of similar projects are appearing in the city.
Presently, the city's 22 universities and technical institutes
churn out 6,000 software engineers per year, and that number is
expected to reach 10,000 in two years.
(China Daily June 20, 2007)