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Japan seeks Indian software professionals

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

BANGALORE: Japan's Vice-Finance Minister for International Affairs, Haruhiko Kuroda, on Friday said his country hoped to overcome a shortage of computer software professionals by recruiting Indian engineers. "We are facing a severe shortage of software engineers and a contribution from Indian engineers would help us," Kuroda told reporters on the sidelines of a business meeting in Bangalore.



Kuroda was in Bangalore ahead of the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori later in August. The vice-minister said around 7,000 Indians were living in Japan, but a large number of them were businessmen rather than tech professionals.



He said Japan accounted for only four percent of India's software exports - worth $4 billion during 1999/2000 (April-March) - while the United States accounted for 60 per cent and Europe, 25 per cent. Kuroda said the plan to accept large numbers of Indian tech professionals was a matter of heated discussion in Japan.



"You can't discriminate against software professionals from other countries and allow only Indians," the vice-minister said. "But I think officials related to visa policy have taken into account the strong requests from Japanese corporations to allow Indian professionals," Kuroda said.



He said the other way to overcome Japan's shortage of software skills was to invite Indian software firms to establish branches in Japan and cater to the demand. Indian software professionals have been keenly sought by countries such as the United States, Germany and Ireland.



The U.S. in May proposed to nearly double the temporary visas granted to skilled workers to 200,000 over the next three years. Germany last month approved a "Green Cards" scheme which will allow information technology "guest workers" for up to five years. The scheme which aims to plug a tech skills gap with foreign experts had been attacked by opposition conservatives for taking jobs away from Germans.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.

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