Mahajan-led delegation heads for China

In a major move to give a new dimension to Indo-China relations, Union

Minister for Information Technology and Parliamentary Affairs, Pramod Mahajan is

leading a high-level official delegation to China from July 17 to July 21. The

key objective of the visit is to identify inputs that would strengthen bilateral

cooperation in critical areas of knowledge-sharing, information technology, HRD,

strategic business partnerships, R&D and institutional linkages, thereby

laying the foundation stone for renewed cooperation in the emerging new

knowledge-based economies. During the course of the visit, Mahajan is expected

to promote the brand image of India as the "gateway to IT revolution".

The visit will also explore the possibility of partnerships, collaboration and

joint ventures in areas of mutual interests between the two countries.

A key feature of the visit will be the interaction with highly placed Chinese

government personnel. Efforts will be made to highlight the policy initiatives

of India for the IT sector. The principal focus will be on financial sector

reforms, which have been undertaken recently. A series of initiatives taken by

the government to chalk out the road map for India's initiatives in eCommerce

will also be highlighted. Attention will also be drawn to the IT regulatory

environment in the country especially in the context of the recent initiatives

of the government with regard to the Information Technology Bill.

Interaction with chiefs of Chinese hardware companies is high on the agenda.

IT hardware is a strategic sector for the Chinese economy and a number of

multinational companies have set up their manufacturing facilities in China.

While India has been globally known for its strength in software, China is known

for its huge hardware production facilities. Both the countries could identify

possible areas of cooperation for the mutual growth of the IT industry through

various policy initiatives. Such complementing capabilities would give an

impetus to bilateral trade and strategic business partnerships.

During the visit, Mahajan will have extensive discussions with Guang Sheng,

Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and Wu Jichuan, Minister of

Information Industry. The discussions will focus on identifying new inputs for

cooperation in IT, R&D and business partnerships.