Indian IT impressive, say Asian delegates at Connect
Friday, 24 September 2004, 19:30 IST
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CHENNAI: Several Asian countries like Nepal and Thailand are looking for cooperation with India on the IT front, say delegates at Tamil Nadu's ICT show Connect 2004. The fourth edition of the annual event began here Wednesday. At least seven foreign delegations are participating in the four-day event this year. For the first time, Connect 2004 features delegations from Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Dubai and South Korea. A team from the Chinese embassy in New Delhi has also come to see, learn and explore the possibility of a future presence in Indian IT shows. The show has been organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the government of Tamil Nadu. Nepal is exploring the scope of using India's Edusat and dedicated educational programmes. This was stated Thursday by Nepal's Science and Technology Minister Pratibha Rana, who is leading a high-powered IT delegation. "We have seen and experienced several success stories in your country in ICT, whether it is related with rural connectivity or in content development, e-governance and judicial reforms," the Nepal minister told the media here. "It is greatly appreciated that you have achieved implementing ICT as a tool in education, healthcare, SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and urban development," she said. Nepal already has an MoU with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for use of weather data from INSAT. "Our experience at Connect 2004 was better than out expectation," she said. The Nepal team visited Chennai's high profile IT hub, TIDEL Park, and the minister said, "Nepal's aim would now be to replicate India's success and share Nepal's IT future with its southern neighbour." The Nepal government is talking to Indian IT companies like TCS, the team said. NIIT, APTECH and several other organisations are helping Nepal provide IT education to 5,000 IT graduates every year. "India can help Nepal become a second business process outsourcing (BPO) hub," the minister said. The Nepal team has invited Indian companies to take part in CAN-2005, an IT expo being organised by the Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) next January. Thailand too has invited Indian companies to its IT expo in August 2005 in Bangkok. "The Thai IT ministry is just two years old and has much to learn from India," Kraisorn Pornsutee, said deputy permanent secretary in the Thai ministry of information and communication technology.
Source: IANS
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