The Hindu Business Line : IndiaSoft to focus on Asia-Pacific region

The reason for shifting base to Chennai for this edition of the event is that `small and medium sized IT companies are largely concentrated in South India.'

Chennai , March 20

THE fifth edition of IndiaSoft 2005, a meet organised annually by the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council, is to begin on Monday in Chennai.

Held for the first time outside New Delhi, the conference-cum-exhibition aims to attract and facilitate interaction amongst small and medium-sized vendors and buyers of software.

Mr Nalin Kohli, Chairman, ESC, speaking to Business Line, said that the focus of the conference would be the gamut of global opportunities available to software companies. "The presentations at the conference would confront contemporary issues facing the IT industry, with a global perspective." He also explained that the reason for shifting base to Chennai for this edition of the get-together was that "small and medium sized IT companies are largely concentrated in South India."

ESC is continuing its practice of hosting select, prospective buyers from various countries. Calling it the Hosted Buyer Program, ESC will, this year, host about 100 representatives while another 100 delegates are coming on their own accord, Mr Kohli said. He added that all these visitors represent the interests of about 50 countries. These include Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela from Latin America, Algeria, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and South Africa from the African continent and Russia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan from the CIS states.

This year's edition has increased focus on countries in the Asia-Pacific region for the first time. Delegates from as the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia are also expected.

Commenting on the success of earlier versions of IndiaSoft, Mr D.K. Sareen, Executive Director, said, "The 2004 edition generated around 900 business enquiries worth around Rs 300 crore. Those that turned into actual orders were worth about $11.5 million. This year, even on a conservative basis, we expect to see at least Rs 250 crore worth of enquiries." IndiaSoft 2005 expects to see about 50,000 visitors.

The inaugural session will be followed by presentations on opportunities available in Latin America, Africa and in CIS countries.

There is also a session on doing business with Indian IT companies that foreign delegates would find useful, Mr Kohli said.

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IndiaSoft to focus on Asia-Pacific region