Beijing: With the entry of major Indian software giants into China, the Communist giant will be able to catch up with India in software exports in a matter of four years, a leading industry analyst has forecast.

China's software exports will catch up with India's in four years with help from Indian software companies, research director with Gartner's Asia-Pacific operations, Dion Wiggins, has said.

Wiggins said the exports of software and application development services in China will grow from last year's $ 850 million to $ 27 billion in 2006, with an average annual growth rate of 620 per cent.

During the same time, Indian software and service sector exports will also jump from $ 6.2 billion to $ 27.5 billion.

The explosive growth of China's software and IT service exports will be inseparable from the Indian software businesses, Wiggins was quoted as saying by the official 'China Daily' on September 23.

He predicted that India-related companies in China will contribute to 40 per cent of the total of China's exports in the software and IT service industry, or $ 108 billion by 2006.

Wiggins said the entry of Indian software vendors will bring their technology and management expertise to China, helping upgrade the level of China's software industry.

Although China has more than 6,000 software companies, double that of India, they only exported $ 850 million in 2001, compared with $ 6.2 billion of their Indian counterparts.

Wiggins pointed out that due to their lack of project management, low-technology level and small employee group, Chinese software firms have difficulties in winning big software projects from foreign organisations.

More and more Indian companies like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Satyam have realised the importance of the Chinese market and have started operations in China in recent months.

PTI