MUMBAI - Indians'
proficiency in English will help it ward off a potential
threat from China in the outsourcing sector, despite the
latter's advantage of having cheap skilled labor and a
market eyed by multinationals, according to global
research and advisory firm Gartner Inc.
"China
will not trounce India in the near-to medium-term, as
the country has a good hold on English, which is the de
facto standard for IT and technology services," Gartner
India vice-president of research Partha Iyengar said.
"India's 300-year history as a British colony
and the use of English as a national language, means it
has a huge population of native speakers to draw on,
that China cannot match," he said.
"This is a
major advantage," Iyengar said, adding that the
English-speaking outsourcing space accounts for 85% of
the total offshoring market.
Moreover, Chinese
cannot use the Queen's language without the help of an
interpreter and while translating, the crux of the
conversation is lost.
This ends in most of the
deals falling flat in that country, he said.
China has an ample supply of trained engineers
and had produced over 200,000 graduates in 1999, which
is more than three times than that of US.
They
also work for a lower salary, US$500 in Shanghai,
against $700 in Bangalore and $5,000 in the US, he said.
(Asia Pulse/PTI)
Aug 11, 2004
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