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Shanghai eyes software export
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Liu Fuzhong
“SHANGHAI is committed to making software export a big business," Chairman of the Shanghai Software Offshore Business Union Shen Chong told an international seminar in Pudong Software Park on Tuesday.
Shen's statement is indeed well substantiated by the city's record US$50 million in software export last year and the Shanghai Municipal Government's solid support for the local export industry.
Software firms in Shanghai contributed to over one-fourth of the nation's total software export. However, in comparison with India which generated over US$6.3 billion in software export, China is still a trivial competitor in the world software market.
“Even though Shanghai is home to thousands of top IT professionals in China, who are comparable to their overseas counterparts, the city is still slow in developing its software industry," Shen said.
“The problem is backward corporate management and lack of international recognition," Shen noted.
In fact that is why the Shanghai Overseas Software Business Union was established last year. The organization is a government-sponsored association of export-oriented software developers in Shanghai. The union, with funding from the government, provides management support for all member organizations.
“Most software firms in Shanghai are classified as small companies according to international standards. It is difficult for them to compete with foreign giants. Yet it is a step local firms must take to catch up with foreign firms," Shen said.
Shen believes that it is efficient use of resources for the government to provide the basic infrastructure for local firms to develop overseas business.
“Currently we have teamed up with leading consulting firms to provide management training to member firms. And hopefully these firms will be certified by ISO (International Organizational Standards) and CMM (Capacity Maturity Model)," he said.
“But more importantly we will combine our resources and build a collective brand which is Shanghai Software Overseas Union," he said.
He cited local firms' experience of being refused by foreign customers for lack of brand recognition. “This is why the local government decides to build up a collective brand to save individual firms' initial cost," he said.
“Hopefully, with good division of labour, we can build up a cross-organizational collaboration, where all member firms offer collective service for international clients," he said.
Shanghai Municipal Government hopes to build up a clearly stratified software industry by unifying resources in small individual firms, according to Shen.
Many representatives from member firms told Shenzhen Daily the union has certainly brought a lot of benefits. Frequent international seminars and consulting-style training have helped them identify and solve their problems. And the connection the union has is extremely helpful to member firms to access the overseas market, they said.
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