Infy's Shanghai plans marred by red tapism

SINGAPORE: More than a year after Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji travelled to India and approved a request by Infosys to start a software development centre in Shanghai, no permission has been received from Chinese authorities to begin work on the project, N.R. Narayana Murthy said.

"I have realised that China's bureaucracy is as difficult as any other bureaucracy and it can thwart the efforts of anybody," he told a meeting of corporate executives in Singapore, answering a question about the company's China plans.

"However, we have started a representative office in China and we are working very hard and hopefully we will get permission in a few months to start a development centre." Zhu approved Infosys's Shanghai plan after touring the headquarters of Infosys in Bangalore during a visit to India in January 2002.

Following a slowdown in the US, Indian software companies are aggressively eyeing other markets, including China, which accounts for a negligible share of their software exports. India's main software body has said China presented a promising market waiting to be tapped by local companies and the Asian giant is not a threat to India's software exports.

© Reuters