Marking its largest investment outside India, and one of the largest investments in China by a software company, Bangalore based Infosys Technologies announced plans to invest between US$125-150 million in the new campus spread over 15 acres and to be developed over a period of three years in Shanghai. This is the first time that Infosys has bought land to build its own campus outside India. Most other global centres of the company operate out of rented or leased properties.
“As the second largest economy in the world, China will lead the world in economic growth in the future and we see exciting times ahead. This large investment is a testimony to Infosys’ commitment to China. As a global company with a presence in over 75 countries, we will use our enhanced capacity here to deliver high quality consulting and software services to the global markets as well as to our clients in China,” Mr. N. R. Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor and Chairman of the Board, Infosys said at the inaugural ceremony.
China’s dominance in manufacturing hardware and India’s excellence in software, lead the two emerging economies with a huge symbiotic synergy. As a result of which, over the past few years, in order to develop its expertise in software and fill the gap, Beijing has been very generous to welcoming Indian software engineers and companies in the hope that they will train locals. The Chinese growth strategy, since Deng Xioping has been to lift the best from the world and duplicate it for the Chinese market. As such, software is India’s kingpin and China is very eager to learn and adopt the best techniques from India.
Rangarajan Vellamore, CEO, Infosys Technologies (China) Co., Ltd, also added, “We have been in China for the past 7 years and have created a high quality capability to address the global and local markets. We have invested heavily in technology, training and people to derive a strategic advantage in our capabilities. With this large investment and enhanced capability we will aim to lead service capability out of China to the global and local markets for business transformation and operations. When this campus is completed we expect to have over 10,000 employees in Shanghai alone.”
Infosys which employs over 3300 people in China and has already invested US$ 23 million in capital and has office space for 4200 people in China will set up its new campus at Zizhu Science and Technology Park in Shanghai. Infosys China was incorporated in 2004 and had revenues of over US$ 78 million in fiscal year 2011.
The domestic IT services market in China is estimated to be US$20 billion, and is growing at a healthy pace of 50-60 percent year on year. The local market is dominated mostly by global companies. Besides, Chinese software companies that are relatively smaller in size, their Indian counterparts are quite dominant in the local market. Besides Infosys, TCS and Wipro also have a big presence in China.