Immense opportunities for Indian IT cos in Japan

PUNE: Hiroichi Numata, having started the $5 million Diakowork KK, a web based portal for medical professionals and healthcare, says that SMEs have immense opportunities in the areas of healthcare, education, finance, HR, outsourcing, embedded technology gaming and CAD.

Numata was in Pune at the invitation of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) to attend an interactive meeting on IT Business Opportunities.

Japan is likely to face a problem in terms of workforce from the year 2007 when around 3,000,000 people will be required for various jobs in both IT and non-IT sectors. Japan's declining birth rate, lack of usable workforce (majority growing old) and absence of a skilled workforce has forced the country to look outside for skilled talent, he said.

He said the Japanese economic prowess and Indian IT prowess could solve issues of skills especially in areas of healthcare and environment where software applications are required.

Sunil Kulkarni, CEO, Fidel group said an Indian IT club has been started with the objective of building a network for Indian IT companies. Bi-lateral trade between India and Japan remain low at $4 billion in contrast to China that does trade worth $15 billion with Japan and this figure is set to double in the next five years, he said. Around 77 Indian companies operate directly or indirectly in Japan. Companies such as Infosys work in the areas of retail and finance, Wipro in embedded systems, Satyam in CAD and TCS in the finance sector have built a presence in Japan.

According to him, business with Japan was a little difficult since the sales cycles were longer, language issues and lack of taxation and legal know-how among Indian companies. Japanese companies prefer to work on mutual trust rather than contracts and many service areas are still protected from international competition. However, the picture is changing slowly, he added.

Kulkarni said a number of Japanese companies faced problems in filling their in-house IT requirements due to lack of resources. Kulkarni's company Fidel Technologies also sells products and services on behalf of other companies and is now looking for a sales force that could meet the requirements of the market.

Deepak Shikarpur, chairman, IT Sub-Committee, MCCIA urged Kulkarni to begin an office in Japan that could act as a sales hub for Pune companies.