The Hindu Business Line : Canberra, Malaysia, Wales seek IT talent

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Mumbai Feb. 14 One is a tropical country in South East Asia, the second the State cum capital city of Australia, while the third is a nation in the UK. The only common streak is their desire to cash in on the opportunities in the booming Indian IT scenario.

While the city-state of Canberra is inviting talent from India for IT-related positions in the State, Indian IT firms are being lured to set shop in Malaysia and in Wales, which is one of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom. According to a recent study, every advertisement for an IT related job in Canberra gets only 1.3 applications. And that explains their keenness to employ IT professionals in the information and communications technology space in Canberra.

``We are looking at Indian IT professionals coming and working in Canberra to leverage the talent pool existing in India. We intend to partner with Indian companies for promoting research and development and facilitating exchange of technology in niche areas like intelligent transport (artificial intelligence), disaster management systems and Internet protocol," Mr Jon Stanhope, Chief Minister, Australian Capital Territory, said at the recently concluded Nasscom Leadership Summit in the city. The delegation also intends to invite Indian IT companies to consider Canberra as a base for future investments.

In talks

The delegation is in advanced talks with TCS, HCL, and Patni who have shown a strong expression of interest, according to Mr James Galloway, Director, Industry Development and Government Liaison.

``Our focus is to create more jobs, for which we are attracting investments from Indian companies (both IT and non IT) in the State of Wales,'' said Mr Martin Jenkins, Project Manager-IT & Communications, International Business Wales.

The delegation is currently in talks with major IT players to set up facilities in Wales, added Mr Jenkins, without going into details.

Malaysia calling

Low wage inflation (5 per cent) and low attrition rate (8 per cent) makes Malaysia a highly attractive place to source human talent, according to a spokesperson representing Malaysia Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), which is a dedicated software park, 15 km wide and 50 km long. "We intend to attract leading Indian companies to locate their multi media industries in MSC, undertake research, develop new products and technologies, and export from this base," said the spokesperson.