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Anil Sasi

New Delhi , Feb. 25

INDIAN mid-sized firms have weathered the Chinese onslaught better, as opposed to their counterpart in the Asia-Pacific region.

According to Grant Thornton's International Business Owners Survey (IBOS) 2005, in which a section was devoted to the response of mid-sized companies across the Asia-Pacific region to China, only two per cent of the Indian companies included in the survey said they had witnessed a fall in business due to China's economic boom.

While 58 per cent of the Indian businesses reported that they have had no impact, 15 per cent actually said they had seen increased business as a result of the Chinese economic boom.

In contrast, companies in the other Asia-Pacific zones, including Japan, Australia, Singapore and Taiwan, have reported much higher impact on their businesses as a result of the competition from China. Against two per cent of the Indian mid-sized firms, 12 per cent of the Japanese companies included in the survey said they witnessed decreased business. It was 10 per cent in case of Australian companies, 26 per cent in the Philippines and 18 per cent in Taiwan.

The survey also suggests that while the bigger companies in the Asia-Pacific zone are making a beeline for China, a majority of the independent mid-sized companies are quite emphatic in stating that they have no plans to start operations or invest in China in the near future. And this could well be India's gain.

A majority of the mid-sized companies also do not see increased opportunities for outsourcing "back-office" services to China. Over 50 per cent of the mid-sized companies in Japan, Australia, the Philippines and Taiwan said they do not envisage China as a potential base for "back-office" operations.

Grant Thornton conducted the International Business Owners Survey in October 2004. The companies included in the survey had between 100 and 1,000 employees, with most having around 500 people. In India, 500 companies from the five metros and smaller industrial towns were surveyed.

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