BANGALORE, INDIA: Sino-Indian relations are getting stronger by the day, thanks to two Bangalore-based companies.

Starting Point Competency Training India Pvt. Ltd (SPCT) and Snam Abrasives Pvt. Ltd (SAPL), based in Bangalore, signed an MoU last week with Xi'an Service Outsourcing Development Association (XSODA), Shaanxi, China, to enhance the level of certification and training required for a world class BPO industry.

The MoU was signed at the Xi'an- Bangalore Service Outsourcing Conference 2007 hosted by the Xi'an Municipal Government and organized by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI).

SPCT and SACL will facilitate continuous exchange of data and business information. "In association with XSODA, we will provide assistance to BPO companies in Xi'an to achieve world class performance standards in terms of customer satisfaction, first time call resolution, lowest average handle time on a call and ease of understanding," said Omesh Adiani, managing director, SPCT.

D. Muralidhar, director, SAPL, added: "We will act as a bridge between Xi'an and Bangalore in locating competent companies in Bangalore who can do outsourcing jobs for Xi'an companies."

Highlighting the investment opportunities in Xi'an, Wang Yi, President, Xi'an Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau noted: "With China being the first largest trade partner with India, there are lots of promising areas, especially in the fields of IT for economic and trade co-operation between the two countries. Through this service outsourcing conference, we would like to study the successful experience Bangalore has made and discuss the future co-operation in software and service outsourcing areas for common development."

Xi'an, an important base of scientific research, higher education and defence technology, is also the base of hi-tech industry in China. The Xi'an Software Park, Xi'an Economic Technological Development Zone, Yanliang Aviation Industrial Base, Xi'an Aerospace Technological Base, as well as Xi'an Jiaoda Industrial Park, are the major investment platforms for outsourcing development, Wang Yi said.

Explaining further, he added that the Xi'an Export Processing Zone is adopting the international operation model to establish a BPO service platform.

Perfect information infrastructure
Every 100 households in Xi'an own 31.7 computers and there are over 1.19 million netizens in Xi'an. The total bandwidth has reached 87.5 gigabytes. Today, it is the fourth largest telecommunication data center in China with the wideband covering 90 percent of the total urban area and 40 percent suburban area.

As regards software development, Xi'an has developed a software exporting community  of over 70 companies, which mainly caters to European, American, Japanese and Korean markets, with ITO, BPO, R&D and other software services as the major businesses.

Over the last three years, Xi'an has maintained an increase of over 35 percent in software and service outsourcing development.

Major co-operative areas between Xi'an and India
* To develop service outsourcing need to build up a series of well-founded demonstrative parks.
* To facilitate cooperation between organizations; enhancing talent cultivation and introduction.
* Welcoming Indian companies to set up R&D centers, branch companies and joint ventures in Xi'an.
* Help from Indian institutions to work on special policies to enhance the IPR protection.