Beijing software industry producers are planning to develop and promote sales of software exports to markets in developed countries.

Although Beijing cultivated the software industry as one of its economic pillars, lack of direct contacts and coordination between home software manufacturers and foreign companies impeded further development of the local software industry, experts said.

An economic hub with more than 250 software manufacturers, 30 of which had an annual export volume of one million US dollars or more, Beijing is expected to become another software production base similar to Bangalore of India and Dublin of Ireland, experts said.

Jiang Guangzhi, chairman of the newly established Beijing Software Import-Export Council (BSIEC), said that his council will provide business information to its 30 members and try to expand exports.

A business hierarchy has been developed for the software industry. The United States is leading in researching and developing new technology, while Indians, Irish and Israelis manufacture software products as contractors, sources said. Most products are sold in the United States, Europe and Japan.

High-end developers started to pay attention to Chinese software manufacturers because of the excellent pool of software engineers and comparatively low manufacturing costs, said Chen Chong, director-general of the China Association for Software Industry.

In the next year, Jiang said, his council plans to improve the software export base in Beijing, attract more internationally-recognized software research and development institutes and promote substantial global business cooperation.
 
(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2003)