| China is the best-kept secret in the offshore development
industry, although that secret is quickly getting out.
China's outsourced software development revenue
grew by 50% in 2004 alone. Currently, the majority of
offshore software development revenue comes from Japan and the United States,
including giant systems integrators NEC, Fujitsu,
Hitachi, IBM, and HP. Even some leading India outsourcing companies
have been moving parts of their operations to Shanghai.
Why? Because they have discovered a huge pool of human
capital, made up of highly skilled and experienced software
developers, and a robust business climate here.
In the past five years, China has turned software development
into one of the fastest growing industries. This helped to fuel its
top universities to heavily invest in developing Computer
Science curriculums. Often times the Computer Science
departments in these universities are the best endowed,
with cutting-edge infrastructure and highly regarded
professors from the West. This, combined with the bright
economic future of IT workers, has made Computer Science
or Electronic Engineering the most sought after academic
endeavors, and software development one of the most
desirable professions. In China, only the top graduating
students get into these areas of study, and the normal
curriculum is 4-6 years.
China puts out 400,000 graduates per year in these
areas. With training and on-going guidance, these young
people are poised to become the next generation IT influencers.
China also welcomes around 50,000 returning expatriates
from the US per year. These are well-educated professionals
with significant working experience. Many of them had
worked in the IT industry in the US prior to returning
to their homeland. They make up of the majority of the
management infrastructure in Chinese offshore companies.
They are the bridge between western standards and eastern
talent. They are our project managers.
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