Shanghai: The head of Hyderabad-based Satyam group s operations in China, Raghvendra Tripathi, is one of the two expatriates voted by the Shanghai administration among the top 10 IT talents in the city.

"The IT talent list covers more and more sectors. The two foreign-listed talents show Shanghai's IT development has attracted world attention," Shanghai's vice mayor Yang Xiong has been quoted as saying in Shanghai Daily.

The annual list is compiled from the Internet and SMS voting and authorised by the Shanghai Committee of China Communist Youth League and the Shanghai Municipal Informatization Commission. Tripathi, who moved in here from Singapore after the Satyam group set up base in China in 2002, may see the recognition coming after a successfully branding of his enterprise here and a recognition of the same by government bodies.

He has also worked closely with a non-government organisation Project Hope that focuses on healthcare by contributing free data warehouse solution and - a fact that may have also been noticed by the Shanghai administration.

"I m not surprised. Satyam is the first Indian Tier-1 IT company to enter China. After five years of development we have enjoyed a good reputation among multinational companies," Tripathi said.

"We have a wide presence in China's big cities - Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Dalian and Guangzhou. Satyam China, which has seen growth in terms of associates, offices and clients, while overcoming the language barrier, mainly extends 3E services - enterprise, integrated engineering and infrastructure management services.

It has over 600 employees in Greater China - 97 percent locals "which is the highest percentage among the Indian peers," said Tripathi, adding the numbers are expected to cross 2,000 by the year-end and touch 3,000 by end-2009.

"Right now we are still in the investment stage. We have set up the 2,500-seat global solutions centre at Nanjing that will be Satyam's largest research and development centre out of India." It will be a campus-style centre - complete with lodging and other amenities and located in the high-tech - which is expected to attract more than 300 software companies while cutting down development costs, he added.

Satyam, listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Euronext of Amsterdam and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in India , is hoping to use China as a base to service its clients in North America and distribute talent globally. Currently, over 60 percent of Satyam's global business comes from the US, while Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East regions contribute around 16 percent.

Europe contributes another 18 percent. Larger rivals like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies have also set up facilities in China with an eye on the growing domestic market as well as neighbouring powerhouses like Japan and Hong Kong, industry sources said.

Source : IANS