India on Friday launched an aggressive campaign to showcase its IT prowess in China to woo local companies in order to bridge the trade imbalance between the two nations.
Officials of over 300 top-end Chinese companies, including that of government-owned undertakings, attended the India-China Business Technology Summit in which Nasscom president, Som Mittal and other officials of top Indian IT firms made presentations. Lou Qinjian, Vice-Minister, Chinese Ministry of IT, also attended the meeting.
"We are not asking for any favours. We are globally competitive in these sector... we are making an aggressive pitch to woo the Chinese companies telling them if you have ambition of becoming a global Chinese Company, you need get a global IT solution provider. That is us," Indian Ambassador S Jaishankar told PTI at the meeting.
"We are telling them that we are cost-wise and quality-wise superior to what you get in China. So, why don't you look at us. This is part of aggressive strategy where we are concerned to try and do something about trade imbalance we have with China," he said.
India's total trade with China stood at about $42 billion this year with balance of trade tilting massively in favour of China.
India imported a whopping $32 billion and exported only $9.5 billion goods, mostly raw materials like iron ore and oil seeds. India has been asking China to address the trade imbalance.
The IT summit was part of a strategy to attract local companies as the Chinese government has agreed to encourage its firms to look at the Indian IT market.
"We discussed with the Chinese government to encourage Chinese companies to come and listen to us. Now it is up to the companies," he said. He said in the next few months, India would make a strong bid to make strong dent in the Chinese market in IT, pharmaceuticals, engineering services and agro products.
Summits would be held all over China on all the four areas where India is strong, he said. Jaishankar said for a variety of reasons, Indian companies have made very limited progress in China.
"This is a matter of concern not just for us, because Chinese too appreciate that large trade imbalances are not sustainable," Jaishankar said earlier addressing the meeting.
