"China-India Service Outsourcing Cooperation Forum" as one of the important activities of the 12th Western China International Fair (WCIF) was held on October 20 in Chengdu Pride International Convention Center. Organized by the Ministry of Commerce and Sichuan Provincial People's Government, undertaken by Chengdu Municipal People's Government and co-organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Gartner and NASSCOM, this forum attracted more than 100 leaders of top-level consulting institutions and leading service outsourcing companies and senior officials of the Indian Government.

Mr I.M. Pandey, consul general of the Indian General Consulate in Guangzhou pays great attention to Sino-Indian cooperation in service outsourcing. He thinks Indian and Chinese software industries have entered the second stage of competitiveness building. In the international expansion of Indian companies, China is a very important market. "We move forward together, complement each other and in the end establish own competitiveness."

Sharing a same view with Mr I.M. Pandey, Gartner Global Vice President Partha Iyengar gives high stress on the importance of collaboration. "Collaboration is much important than competition!" In his field of vision, China and India face not only the markets of the two countries but also the market of the whole world.

Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India chaired by Mr. N.K. Goyal has over 1,000 members including Indian telecom operators and brand manufacturers and is the largest association for IT and communication companies in India. He thinks China-India cooperation shouldn't be limited to IT.

Mr Partha Iyengar said Chengdu has many universities and ample human resources, so he suggests Chengdu draws on India's model in Shanghai?- set up a park, channel Chinese high-end talents to the service outsourcing industry and make Chengdu a very good human resource reserve. He thought the reserve of high-end labor force would bring benefit to India, China and the whole world market. He also suggested Chinese companies pay attention to the selection of segment markets and find their own opportunities during outsourcing service.

"This exchange further hardens the determination of Chinese outsourcing companies, particularly the outsourcing companies in western China to 'go out', set a global layout and carry out capital and market cooperation," introduced an official from the municipal commercial bureau. This exchange and cooperation platform will encourage more Indian companies to come to Chengdu for cooperation and investment. For Indian companies, it is a good choice to establish a bridgehead in Chengdu to expand their business in China, Japan, South Korea and the Asia Pacific region.

The cooperation between Chengdu and India has a long history. In economic and trade sectors, Chengdu realized 24.3 billion dollars of foreign trade in 2010, including 13.7 billion dollars of export, in the top position in the central and western region, and the import and export with India reached 908 million dollars. Chengdu is in the leading position in western China in terms of economic cooperation with the states in South Asia. The companies from Sichuan have five billion dollars worth of contracts in India. Among them, the Abhijeet project of Dongfang Electric Co, Ltd. in India has a contract worth 2.3 billion dollars.

According to the data provided by the municipal commercial bureau, last year Chengdu undertook outsourcing service in India with a contract amount of 20.98 million dollars, and the actually executed amount was 3.9 million dollars, accounting for five percent and one percent of the city's total service outsourcing amount.

According to the statistics of the service outsourcing statistical system of the Ministry of Commerce, in 2010, Chengdu realized service outsourcing with a registered contract amount of 336 million dollars, a year-on-year growth of 99 percent and the actually executed amount was 258 million dollars, a year-on-year growth of 158 percent. In the first investment attraction evaluation report of 56 service outsourcing demonstration and non-demonstration cities recently co-initiated by Devott and China Outsourcing web (www.chnsourcing.com.cn) – Chinese Service Outsourcing City Investment Attraction Evaluation 2011, Chengdu was ranked first with the highest score. Chengdu service outsourcing industry has gradually formed a pattern of clustered development of famous multinational corporations, domestic leading enterprises and local companies.